Patent ID: 7651388

Claim:
A method of portioning a work product comprising the steps of: (a) scanning the work product; (b) determining the three-dimensional configuration of the work product prior to portioning of the work product from the data obtained during the scanning of the work product; (c) determining in advance how the work product is to be portioned into a plurality of end products based on the determined three-dimensional configuration of the unportioned work product and the desired end products achieved by cutting the work product in a first direction into two-dimensional shapes and then subsequently slicing selected of the cut two-dimensional shapes into a plurality of desired, specific thicknesses in a direction substantially transverse to the direction of cutting the work product; (d) cutting the work product in a first direction into the pre-determined product two-dimensional shapes; and (e) slicing one or more of the cut two-dimensional shapes as viewed in a direction substantially transverse to the direction of cutting the work product into a plurality of independent desired thicknesses, to achieve desired three-dimensional configurations of the end products.