Patent ID: 8892246

Claim:
Method for processing food items such as pieces of meat, comprising the steps of: providing a stream of food items by means of a primary conveyor, wherein said primary conveyor is configured to transport said food items to or past a plurality of workstations in a given direction, and wherein said primary conveyor is of a particular type, a computer system automatically allocating a subset of said food items to be transferred to a particular one of the plurality of workstations; automatically transferring, using the computer system, the allocated ones of said food items from said primary conveyor of the particular type to the particular one of said plurality of workstations as the food items arrive at the particular one of the workstations, wherein said transferred ones of said items are processed at said particular one of said plurality of workstations, resulting in one or more processed items, allowing the food items in the stream of items not allocated to the particular one of the workstations to pass the particular one of the workstations without being transferred to the particular one of the workstations; registering in the computer system information about a return of at least one of said one or more processed items to said primary conveyor of the particular type, automatically returning, using the computer system, said at least one of said one or more processed items to said primary conveyor of the particular type in accordance with said information about a return, and transporting said at least one of said one or more processed items and the food items in the stream of items not allocated to the particular one of the workstations to or past a subsequent one of said plurality of workstations in said given direction using said primary conveyor of the particular type.