Patent ID: 8033204

Claim:
In a food cutting apparatus including an annular arrangement of circumferentially spaced knives having axially extending cutting edges disposed around an axially extending annular product receiving area and gauging insert elements having gauging surfaces facing the product receiving area disposed in radially spaced relationship relative to said cutting edges to define thickness gate openings, the dimension of said gate openings defining a slice thickness of a food product, and throat spaces each having a throat dimension extending circumferentially between said cutting edges and terminal ends of said gauging surfaces, the cutting edge of each knife extending parallel to a terminal edge of a next adjacent gauging insert element; the improvement wherein the ratio of the throat dimension to slice thickness is 1 to 1.7; wherein the terminal end of the gauging surface of each knife is connected to the terminal edge of the insert by a surface extending in a forward or downstream direction relative to sliced food product movement between the terminal end of the gauging surface and the terminal edge of the insert; and wherein said surface is defined by a bevel at the terminal edge of the insert.