Patent ID: 8156851

Claim:
A method of cutting food products into pieces comprising: singulating the food products to form a line of moving spaced apart food products; automatically determining the length of each food product; delivering the food products one at a time under the influence of gravity to a downwardly inclined passageway having a cutting device at a lower end thereof; allowing each food product to descend in the passageway under the influence of gravity toward the cutting device; temporarily obstructing the descending movement of each food product in the passageway; cutting the food product substantially transversely while the food product's movement is obstructed; and following cutting, allowing cut pieces of the food product to continue to descend in the passageway under the influence of gravity; and providing at least two separately actuatable stop members capable of extension into the passageway to create food product barriers at different locations in the passageway, and providing at least two separately actuatable blades capable of extending substantially transversely across the passageway at different locations.