Patent ID: 8661773

Claim:
A method for packaging meat products, the method comprising: providing a flow of randomly spaced meat products as conveyed along a process flow path; at a first processing station positioned along the process flow path, measuring a characteristic of each the meat products by an object recognition system using measurement equipment, generating data from the object recognition system regarding the meat products, assigning a criteria to the meat products based on the data and automatically sorting the meat products using the criteria assigned to the meat product to direct meat products having a common characteristic to a second processing station positioned downstream from the first processing station along the process flow path as a flow of randomly spaced meat products having a common characteristic; at the second processing station, converting the flow of randomly spaced meat products having a common characteristic to a regular flow of meat products having a predetermined minimum spacing and having a common characteristic; and at a third processing station positioned downstream from the second processing station along the process flow path, packaging the meat products.