Patent ID: 8827683

Claim:
An apparatus for forming food into doughnut shape, comprising: a supplying unit supplying an inner food material and an outer food material; a discharging unit including a plurality of nozzles combined as multiple nozzles to discharge the inner food material and the outer food material downward, an inside forming member having an outside surface, a part of said inside forming member being disposed inside of the nozzles and part of said inside forming member protruding in a downward direction therefrom, and a plurality of annular outlets between each of the nozzles and the inside forming member, that the annular outlets discharging the food materials into a tubular shape formed over the outside surface of said inside forming member from the outlets with the outer food material sandwiching the inner food material; an opening/closing unit opening and closing the annular outlet from which the inner food material is intermittently discharged as ring portions at intervals; and a forming unit including a plurality of cutting members disposed under the discharging unit nozzle and around the inside forming member and being operative to move in a first direction orthogonal to the downward direction, the forming unit dividing the tubular food material discharged from the discharging unit into rings by moving the cutting members across the outer food material between the ring portions of the inner food material so as to bring the cutting members into cutting contact with the outside surface of the inside forming member.