Patent ID: 8110236

Claim:
A method of providing shaped food portions comprising the steps of: providing prepared food portions; providing the prepared food portions as a frozen slab; cutting the slab into unit portions by at least one of volume and weight; and then sliding at least two unit portions simultaneously into a shaping station and shaping the at least two unit portions to simultaneously provide at least two shaped portions having and predetermined exterior shapes with a shaper having a loading station which receives the frozen unit portions with a feed plate which linearly reciprocates the at least two unit portions at the shaping station where a first plate and a second plate cooperate to provide at least two cavities to at least assist in shaping the at least two unit portions into corresponding at least two shaped portions respectively and the feed plate reciprocates at least substantially perpendicularly to the first plate, and after shaping the shaped product therebetween, at least one of the first plate and second plate are moved relative to the other so that the shaped product can be discharged relative to at least one of the first plate and second plates, and further comprising the step of discharging the shaped products from the shaping station in a direction perpendicular to the relative motion between the first and second shaper plates with the feed plate, said feed plate having a leading edge which contacts shaped products against the feed plate to discharge the shaped products, and the at least two cavities in the first plate have at least two surfaces respectively resembling at least a portion of chicken breast thereon and at least assists in providing a shaped chicken breast product during the shaping step, and the feed plate reciprocates in and out of the shaping station.