GB2481219A

GB2481219A - Continuous mixing of meat and a dry bulk ingredient

Info

Publication number: GB2481219A
Application number: GB1010009.7A
Authority: GB
Inventors: David Burgoine; Philip Heathcote; Paul Janis Baumanis
Original assignee: Kerry Foods Ltd
Current assignee: Kerry Foods Ltd
Priority date: 2010-06-15
Filing date: 2010-06-15
Publication date: 2011-12-21
Anticipated expiration: 2030-06-15
Also published as: GB201010009D0; IE20110275A1; GB2481219B

Abstract

An apparatus for mixing a meat ingredient with a dry bulk ingredient includes a static inline mixer 20, allowing the meat product to be formed in a continuous process, rather than a batch process. A supply arrangement supplies a stream of the meat ingredient and a stream of the dry bulk ingredient to the mixer, and the rate of meat ingredient supplied in the stream thereof is controlled, in proportion to the rate of dry bulk ingredient, on the basis of the weight of the meat ingredient. The streams of the meat ingredient and dry bulk ingredient are fed into a container housing an auger 22, fig 9 that transfers the contents of the container to the mixer, as well as providing initial mixing.

Description

Manufacture of a Meat Product The present invention relates to the manufacture of a meat product, such as sausage meat, formed by mixing a meat ingredient and a dry bulk ingredient.

Various meat products, such as sausage meat, are formed by mixing a meat ingredient with a dry bulk ingredient. The meat ingredient might typically comprise ground meat or meat substitute blended with fat, and so is wet. Depending on the recipe, the meat product may have various percentages of meat, meat types and species, may have various particulate sizes, and may be at various temperatures ranging between negative and positive Celsius values. This needs to be mixed with a dry bulk ingredient that acts to bulk out and characterize the meat product. Depending on the recipe, the meat product might comprise rusk or breadcrumbs. These two ingredients need to be mixed to provide a meat product that has characteristics that are uniform across an amount of the meat product and that are consistent each time the meat product is manufactured. As the dry bulk ingredient is drier than the meat ingredient, the mixing process needs to provide a sufficient degree of mixing of the ingredients, whilst avoiding damage to the components of the meat product, especially in the meat ingredient that includes sensitive components.

Current manufacturing techniques often use batch processing. A typical batch process is as follows. This process uses a mixer such as a paddle mixer that comprises a paddle arranged to rotate in a tub for mixing the ingredients. The meat ingredient is produced and transferred into a storage vessel. A batch of the meat ingredient is then transferred, automatically or manually, into a mixer in varying batch sizes, for example of 400 to 800 kg. A batch of the dry bulk ingredient is also weighed and dosed, again automatically or manually, into the mixer. The mixer operates with a pre-set program, for example time, speed, and/or direction, etc., that is selected to create a meat product with uniform characteristics. Then the operation of the mixer is stopped and the resultant batch of meat product is then removed, automatically or manually, from the mixer, for example by being transferred out from the mixer into a container such as a tote bin. Thereafter the meat product may be subject to further processing, for example in the case of sausage meat being supplied to a filling line for filling sausages.

The first aspect of the present invention is concerned with the efficiency of the process. However, any improvements in efficiency must provide sufficiently good characteristics for the resultant meat product, as discussed above providing a S 2 sufficient degree of mixing of the ingredients and uniformity of the resultant meat product, whilst avoiding damage to the components of the meat product.

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of mixing a meat ingredient comprising ground meat or meat substitute blended with fat with a dry bulk ingredient to form a meat product, the method comprising continuously supplying the meat ingredient and the dry bulk ingredient to an inline mixer that is arranged to mix the meat ingredient and the dry bulk ingredient to form the meat product and to output the meat product continuously.

Further according to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus capable of implementing a similar method.

Thus, the first aspect of the present invention utilizes an inline mixer to mix the ingredients. An inline mixer is a type of mixer commonly used in the chemical industry to mix gas streams, liquids or dry powders or to disperse gases into liquids or immiscible liquids. Common applications include manufacture of adhesives, sealants and pastes, as well as waste water processing, chemical processing, gas/oil refining and polymer production. However, in the present invention, the inline mixer is instead applied to a meat product and surprisingly has been found to provide a sufficient degree of mixing to provide uniformity of the resultant meat product. Furthermore, this is achieved without damaging the components of the meat product, despite the sensitive nature of, in particular, the components of the meat ingredient.

The use of an inline mixer allows the mixing to be performed in a continuous process, rather than batch process. That is to say, the meat ingredient and the dry bulk ingredient are supplied continuously to the inline mixer and the meat product is output continuously. Such a continuous process provides significant advantages over a batch process. It improves the efficiency by allowing the mixing to be performed without interruptions. Similarly, it avoids restriction to a particular batch size, reducing wastage when there is a requirement to manufacture an amount of meat product less than the selected batch size.

The inline mixer may be a static inline mixer. It has been found that a static inline mixer may provide the advantages discussed above, whilst providing the inherent advantages of a static inline mixer of being simple to implement and operate, having no moving parts. A dynamic inline mixer may be used, but has the disadvantage of being more complex and requiring greater maintenance, in view of the moving parts.

In one embodiment, the supply of the meat ingredient and the dry bulk ingredient to the inline mixer comprises supplying the meat ingredient and the dry bulk ingredient to a container that is arranged to feed a pump that is operative to transfer the meat product to the inline mixer. Such an arrangement has the advantage that some preliminary mixing may be performed in the container, which assists the mixing subsequently performed in the inline mixer. The pump may, for example, comprise an auger housed in the container, which form of pump particularly assists mixing.

The second aspect of the present invention is concerned with maintaining the consistency of the resultant product. The meat ingredient and dry bulk ingredient for a given meat product will typically vary significantly in consistency due to the varying nature of the constituents, such as ground meat or fat in the case of a meat product.

This makes it difficult to provide consistency in the resultant product, particularly with respect to the relative proportions of meat product and dry bulk ingredient.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of mixing a meat ingredient comprising ground meat or meat substitute blended with fat with a dry bulk ingredient to form a meat product, the method comprising: supplying a stream of the meat ingredient and a stream of the dry bulk ingredient to a mixer, and during said supplying, controlling the rate of meat ingredient supplied in the stream thereof in a predetermined proportion with respect to the rate of dry bulk ingredient supplied in the stream thereof on the basis of the weight of the meat ingredient.

Thus, the second aspect of the present invention controls the relative proportions of the meat ingredient and the dry bulk ingredient by supplying the ingredients in streams and controlling the rate of meat ingredient supplied in the stream thereof on the basis of the weight of the meat ingredient. Providing the ingredients in streams allows the relative rates thereof to be continuously controlled as the streams are fed to the mixer, which has been found to assist in controlling the consistency of the resultant meat product. Furthermore, it has been found that controlling the rate of meat ingredient supplied on the basis of its weight is an easily measured characteristic that provides good control over the consistency of the meat product as compared to using some other characteristics of the meat ingredient, such as volume, viscosity, pressure or intrinsic characteristics measured by a probe such as moisture content. Thus control of the rate of meat ingredient supplied in the stream on the basis of the weight of the meat ingredient allows the meat product to be manufactured with reliable consistency so that it has characteristics that are uniform across an amount of the meat product and that are consistent each time the meat product is manufactured.

Similarly, the rate of the dry bulk ingredient supplied in the stream thereof on basis of the weight of the dry bulk ingredient may be controlled on the basis of its weight, for example using a loss-in-weight feeder. This also has been has been found to assist in controlling the consistency of the resultant meat product, for similar reasons to the meat ingredient. However, the rate of dry bulk ingredient could alternatively be controlled on the basis of other characteristics such as weight because dry bulk ingredients are generally more consistent than meat ingredients.

The second aspect of the present invention may advantageously be implemented in combination with the first aspect of the invention using a mixer that is an inline mixer. However, the second aspect of the present invention may also be used with other types of mixer, including mixers to which batch processing is applied.

To allow better understanding, an embodiment of the present invention will now be described by way of non-limitative example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Fig. I is a schematic drawing of an apparatus for mixing a meat ingredient and a dry bulk ingredient; Fig. 2 is a perspective view of a storage hopper; Fig. 3 is a perspective view of a transfer pump; Fig. 4 is a side view of a weighing conveyor; Fig. 5 is an end view of the weighing conveyor in operation; Fig. 6 is a side view of a loss-in-weight feeder; Fig. 7 is a perspective view from above of the front end of a transfer pump; Fig. 8 is a perspective side view of the transfer pump.

Fig. 9 is top view of a transfer hopper; Fig. 10 is a perspective view of the static inline mixer with the upper part of the casing omitted to show the internal components; and Fig. 11 is a perspective view of a storage silo.

An apparatus 1 for manufacturing a meat product, such as sausage meat, is shown schematically in Fig. 1.

The apparatus 1 may be used to mix a meat ingredient and dry bulk ingredient to form the meat product. Both the meat ingredient and the dry bulk ingredient may take a variety of forms depending on the recipe used.

The meat ingredient may comprise ground meat blended with fat, optionally including additional constituents such as flavourings and/or preservatives. The ground meat may be manufactured by grinding meat with fat that is naturally present with the meat and/or fat from another source. Other processing of meat ingredient may be performed. The meat ingredient may vary in many characteristics, for example in the percentage of meat, the meat species or cut or the particulate sizes. Alternatively, the ground meat may be substituted by a meat substitute, for example to form a vegetarian product, although for brevity this will still be referred to in this specification as a "meat product" because it has similar characteristics. The meat ingredient may be at any of a range of temperatures of positive or negative Celsius values. The meat ingredient is wet, and is sometimes referred to as a "dough". The wetness may arise from liquid naturally present in the meat and/or fat and/or from added liquid.

The dry bulk ingredient is an ingredient that acts to bulk out and characterize the meat product. The dry bulk ingredient may be of any type, but may typically comprise rusk or breadcrumbs. The dry bulk ingredient may optionally include additional constituents such as flavourings and/or preservatives. Although it is described as "dry" because it is generally dry as compared the meat ingredient, the dry bulk ingredient may have some degree of moisture content and it may include some components that are themselves wet, for example pieces of vegetable matter such as onion or pepper. Generally, the dry bulk ingredient has a moisture content measured on a weight basis of at most 55%, preferably at most 30%, more preferably at most l5% and in many products around or below 5%. The moisture content is defined as the weight of the water in the dry bulk ingredient divided by the total weight of the dry bulk ingredient, and may be derived by weighing the dry bulk ingredient before and after drying in a drying oven. The relative dryness of the dry bulk ingredient makes it difficult to mix consistently with the meat ingredient due to aggregation and clumping. S 6

Typical amounts of the dry bulk ingredient as a percentage by weight of the total weight of the dry bulk ingredient and meat ingredient are as follows. Typically the amount of the dry bulk ingredient is at least 4%. Typically the amount of the dry bulk ingredient is at most 30%, more preferably at most 18%.

The apparatus I includes a control system that includes a SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) 2 implemented by a computer apparatus running an appropriate program. The controller 2 controls various variable speed drives and specific manufacturer supplied control systems of the components of the apparatus I described below. The controller 2 is connected to an HMI (human-machine interface) 3 in the form of a touch screen panel that displays the status of the apparatus 1 and allows user input to control the operation of the apparatus 1. The SCADA 2 is also configured so as to collect, store and display live and historical production data to the user and to external data capture systems, as well as cross-referencing recipe types.

The apparatus I comprises a storage hopper 4 shown in Fig. 2 that stores a stock of the meat ingredient. The meat ingredient is manufactured and introduced into the storage hopper 4 manually or automatically by a manual/HMT or SCADA apparatus (not shown). The storage hopper 4 can store the meat ingredient in varying levels, for example from 10kg to 4000kg. The storage hopper 4 may include a sensor, such as an infrared measuring devices or load cell, to measure the amount of meat ingredient stored therein. Such a sensor may be connected to the SCADA 2 to display the stored amount of meat ingredient and to allow the SCADA 2 to run the apparatus when a sufficient quantity is available and/or to request replenishment of the meat ingredient when the level is low. To reduce wastage, the SCADA 2 may allows the level to be automatically run down at the end of a required production runs.

Optionally, the apparatus I may include more than one storage hopper 4 to allow selective supply of different meat ingredients into the same or different meat products, depending on the recipe.

The storage hopper 4 is fitted with a dosing pump 5 that is shown in Fig. 3.

The dosing pump 5 is driven by a variable speed drive motor 6 to feed a stream of the meat ingredient from the storage hopper 4 into a feed pipe 7. The dosing pump 4 is controlled by the SCADA 2 to operate at selected rate within a range, for example from 400 kg/hr and 4000 kg/hr. This controls the rate that the meat ingredient is supplied in the stream and is determined in accordance with the recipe as discussed below. That rate is stored and is displayed on the HMI 3.

The apparatus I further includes a weighing conveyor 8 shown in Fig. 4 and comprising a belt 9 in a continuous loop around rollers 10 driven by a drive 11. As shown in Fig. 5, the feed pipe 7 feeds the stream of meat ingredient onto belt 10 of the weighing conveyor 8. The weighing conveyor 8 further comprises product guides 12 arranged on opposite lateral sides of the belt 9 flanking the meat ingredient along belt 9 to guide it and prevent loss. The weighing conveyor 8 is a conventional and widely commercially available product. The product guides 12 may be formed by sheets of any suitable food-grade material attached to the weighing conveyor 8. The weighing conveyor 8 is driven at fixed speed that is independent of the speed of the dosing pump 5. Thus the speed of the dosing pump 5 controls the rate of meat ingredient supplied in the stream.

The weighing conveyor 8 incorporates a load cell 13 that measures the weight of a section of the stream of meat ingredient on the weighing conveyor 8. In this apparatus 1, the load cell 13 is arranged beneath the belt 9 to measure the weight of a section of the stream of meat ingredient extending partway along the belt, but it could alternatively measure the gross weight of the weighing conveyor 8 and thus provide the net weight of the entire section of meat ingredient on the weighing conveyor 8 after calibration for the tare weight of the weighing conveyor 8 itself. The load cell 13 in this embodiment is an electro-mechanical load cell with a milli-volt output, but could in general be any type of load cell capable of measuring weight. The load cell 13 performs the measurement of weight continuously and calculates the feed rate supplied by the dosing pump 5. This information is continuously updated and sent to the SCADA 2 for display and use in the control as described below.

The apparatus I further comprises a transfer hopper 14. As shown in Fig. 6, the downstream end of the weighing conveyor 8 is positioned over the transfer hopper 14 so that the weighing conveyor 8 conveys the stream of meat ingredient into the transfer hopper 14. Thus the dosing pump 5, feed pipe 7 and weighing conveyor 8 together act as a feeder arrangement for supplying the stream of meat ingredient into the transfer hopper 14.

The apparatus I also include a loss-in-weight feeder 15 that acts as a feeder arrangement to supply a stream of dry bulk ingredient into the transfer hopper 14. The loss-in-weight feeder 15 may supply the dry bulk ingredient in a stream that is continuous or is pulsed. The loss-in-weight feeder 15 is a conventional and widely commercially available product.

As shown in Fig. 6, the loss-in-weight feeder 15 has a hopper 16 that stores a stock of the dry bulk ingredient and a feeder mechanism 17 that feeds a stream of the dry bulk ingredient from the hopper 16 out of a chute 18. In the apparatus 1, the chute 18 is positioned above the transfer hopper 14 to feed the dry bulk ingredient into the transfer hopper 14. The feeder mechanism 17 is controlled by a stand-alone control system 19 that measures the retained weight of the dry bulk ingredient in the hopper 16, for example by measuring the gross weight of the loss-in-weight feeder 15 and calibrating for the tare weight of the loss-in-weight feeder 15. The control system 19 may operate in a loss-in-weight mode in which it controls the rate of dry bulk ingredient supplied by the feeder mechanism 17 on the basis of the retained weight of the dry bulk ingredient. As the retained weight of dry bulk ingredient reduces as dry bulk ingredient is supplied, this control may also be viewed as being on the basis of the weight of dry bulk ingredient supplied in the stream thereof. The control system 19 is controlled by the SCADA 2 to supply the dry bulk ingredient at a rate selected as described below. On the basis of the rate supplied by the SCADA 2 and the retained weight of dry bulk ingredient, the loss-in-weight feeder 15 calculates the required amount of dry bulk ingredient to be supplied over any given period of time.

The control system 19 may also operate in a volumetric mode in which it controls the rate of dry bulk ingredient in the stream supplied by the feeder mechanism 17 on the basis of volume. During normal operation of the apparatus 1, the control system 19 is operated in the loss-in-weight mode because this has been found to provide better consistency of the resulting meat product when the consistency of the dry bulk ingredient varies. Alternatively, the control system 19 could be operated always in the volumetric mode and this may be appropriate for dry bulk ingredients where consistency is reliable.

The loss-in-weight feeder 15 also monitors the amount of dry bulk ingredient in the hopper 16 and is arranged to perform level control to predetermined parameters set by the SCADA, causing replenishment when needed, either automatically or by requesting manual replenishment. So as to maintain continuous running, when the control system 19 is operated in the loss-in-weight mode, transiently during replenishment the loss-in-weight feeder 15 automatically goes into the volumetric mode and supplies dry bulk ingredient at a rate determined by volume based on the S 9 average actual dosing rate since the last replenishment. This maintains the control on the basis of weight for the brief period of replenishment. After replenishment, the control system 19 reverts to the loss-in-weight mode following a brief stabilization period.

Optionally, the apparatus I may include more than one loss-in-weight feeder to allow selective supply of different dry bulk ingredients into the same or different meat products, depending on the recipe.

The transfer hopper 14 acts as a container to collect the stream of meat ingredient and the stream of dry bulk ingredient for supply to an inline mixer 20 that forms part of the apparatus 1. As shown in Figs. 7 and 8, a transfer pump 21 is connected to the base of the transfer hopper 14 for pumping the contents of the transfer hopper 14 into the inline mixer 20. In addition, as shown in Fig. 9, the transfer hopper 14 houses an auger 22 positioned at the bottom of the transfer hopper 14. The auger 22 is arranged to transfer the contents of the transfer hopper 14, i.e. the meat ingredient and the dry bulk ingredient into the feed chamber of the transfer pump 21, serving to optimize consistent pressure and feed rate to the transfer pump 21. Thus the auger 22 and the transfer pump 21 together act as a pump arrangement for transferring the contents of the transfer hopper 14 to the inline mixer 20. In addition, the auger 22 performs an initial mixing of the meat ingredient and the dry bulk ingredient in the compression zone of the transfer hopper 14. Whilst this does not provide a sufficient degree of mixing for the final meat product, it does assist the inline mixer 20 by aiding the blending of the dry bulk ingredient to the meat ingredient.

The auger 22 is driven by a motor 23 that is operable at a variable speed. The auger 22 is capable of running in reverse, if required. The motor 23 is also mechanically linked to transfer pump 21 for driving the transfer pump 21 at a speed and pressure that may be controlled. The motor 23, auger 22 and transfer pump 21 are controlled by the SCADA 2 so as to optimize efficiency.

The inline mixer 20 is shown in Fig. 10 and serves to mix the meat ingredient and the dry bulk ingredient. The inline mixer 20 is of the type commonly used in the chemical industry to mix gas streams, liquids or dry powders or to disperse gases into liquids or immiscible liquids. For use in that technical field, the inline mixer 20 is of a conventional type and widely commercially available. An example of the inline mixer is shown in Fig. 10 and comprises a tubular case 24 containing a series of mixer elements 25 over which the meat ingredient and the dry bulk ingredient flow. The tubular case 24 is illustrated cut-away in Fig. 10 in order to show the mixer elements 25. The mixer elements 25 are typically helical. As the meat ingredient and the dry bulk ingredient move through the inline mixer 20, the mixer elements 25 continuously mix them. The mixing may be achieved by flow division and/or by radial mixing.

In this example, the inline mixer 20 is a static inline mixer in which the mixer elements 25 are static, which has the benefit of being easy to maintain. Alternatively, the inline mixer 20 could be a dynamic inline mixer including moving mixer elements.

The inline mixer 20 can be provided as a single piece, having a length and cross-section as determined by the required mix. Alternatively, the inline mixer 20 can be provided as multiple sections in series that together provide the required length and number of mixing elements. The multiple sections may each be a separate component fitted within pipework at either constant or variable intervals. The inline mixer 20 can either be fixed or removable.

Use of the inline mixer 20 has been shown to provide a sufficient degree of mixing to provide uniformity of the resultant meat product, without damaging the components of the meat product, despite the sensitive nature of, in particular, the components of the meat ingredient.

The output of the inline mixer 20 is connected to supply the resultant meat product to an outlet pipe 26 that feeds the meat product into a storage silo 27. The meat product may be discharged by a discharge mechanism 28 from the storage silo 27 for storage and/or further processing, for example by a filling line to make sausages in the case of the meat product being sausage meat. The discharge mechanism 28 is controlled (either fully, semi automatically or with manual override) by the SCADA 2 to perform a continuous variable speed discharge process. The storage silo 27 also has level sensors that measure the amount of meat product contained therein, the measurements being continuously fed back to the SCADA 2 for display and to allow automatically starting and stopping of the apparatus I as required.

All of the apparatus 1 described above is designed so as to be hygienic as both individual components and as a combined system with cleaning-in-place (CIP) systems installed as appropriate. The apparatus 1 is also designed for ease of assembly and dismantling.

The apparatus I is operated under the control of the SCADA 2 as follows.

The SCADA 2 allows the user to select a recipe for the meat product. The recipe will specify a particular meat ingredient and a particular dry bulk ingredient, as well as predetermined proportions of the meat ingredient and the dry bulk ingredient relative to each other. The required stocks of the meat ingredient and the dry bulk ingredient are then introduced into the storage hopper 4 and the loss-in-weight feeder 15, respectively, this being done either manually or automatically under the control of the SCADA 2. The recipe may also specify particular parameters for the operation of the components of the apparatus, or else these may be set automatically by the SCADA 2.

The SCADA 2 then operates the apparatus I by causing operation of(I) the dosing pump 5 and the weighing conveyor 8 to supply the meat ingredient into the transfer hopper 14, (2) the loss-in-weight feeder 15 to supply the dry bulk ingredient into the transfer hopper 14, and (3) the auger 22 and the transfer pump 21 to transfer the contents of the transfer hopper 14 through the inline mixer 20 to produce the meat product and to transfer that meat product into the storage silo 27.

The SCADA 2 controls the dosing pump 5 and the loss-in-weight feeder 15 to supply the meat ingredient and the dry bulk ingredient in the streams thereof in a predetermined proportion with respect to each other, in accordance with the recipe.

The dosing pump 5 is controlled to supply the meat ingredient in the stream thereof at a rate determined on the basis of the weight of the meat ingredient. In particular, the SCADA 2 monitors the weight of the section of the stream of meat ingredient measured by the load cell 13 and controls the dosing pump 5 on the basis of the measured weight to maintain the predetermined proportion with respect to the dry bulk ingredient. Similarly, the SCADA 2 specifies the rate of supply of the dry bulk ingredient by weight to the loss-in-weight feeder 15 to maintain the predetermined proportion with respect to the dry bulk ingredient. The loss-in-weight feeder 15 then controls the rate of dry bulk ingredient supplied in the stream on that basis.

Supplying the meat ingredient and the dry bulk ingredient in streams whose rates are determined on the basis of weight has been found to assist in controlling the consistency of the resultant meat product. The supply in streams that may be continuously controlled allows the relative proportion of the two ingredients to be continuously controlled, thereby providing for a consistent and uniform meat product.

Furthermore, controlling the rate of supply of the meat ingredient on the basis of its weight provides good control over the consistency of the meat product, despite the inevitable lack of consistency in the meat ingredient, as compared to using some other characteristics of the meat ingredient, such as volume, viscosity, pressure or intrinsic characteristics measured by a probe such as moisture content. Similarly, controlling the rate of supply of the dry bulk ingredient in the stream thereof on basis of its weight of the dry bulk ingredient has also been found to assist in controlling the consistency of the resultant meat product.

During operation, information from the various sensors in the apparatus I is fed to the SCADA 2 for display to allow monitoring of the process. Replenishment of the storage hopper 4 and the loss-in-weight feeder 15 is handled as described above, if the initial stocks of the meat ingredient and the dry bulk ingredient are insufficient.

Claims

Claims 1. A method of mixing a meat ingredient comprising ground meat or meat substitute blended with fat with a dry bulk ingredient to form a meat product, the method comprising continuously supplying the meat ingredient and the dry bulk ingredient to an inline mixer that is arranged to mix the meat ingredient and the dry bulk ingredient to form the meat product and to output the meat product continuously.
2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the inline mixer is a static inline mixer.
3. A method according to claim I or 2, wherein the step of continuously supplying the meat ingredient and the dry bulk ingredient to the inline mixer is comprises supplying the meat ingredient and the dry bulk ingredient to a container that is arranged to feed a pump arrangement that is operative to transfer the meat product to the inline mixer.
4. A method according to claim 3, wherein the pump arrangement includes an auger housed in the container.
5. A method according to any one of claims Ito 4, wherein said step of continuously supplying the meat ingredient and the dry bulk ingredient to an inline mixer comprises supplying a stream of the meat ingredient and a stream of the dry bulk ingredient to the inline mixer, and said method further comprises, during said supplying, controlling the rate of meat ingredient supplied in the stream thereof in a predetermined proportion with respect to the rate of dry bulk ingredient supplied in the stream thereof on the basis of the weight of the meat ingredient.
6. A method according to claim 5, wherein the step of controlling the rate of meat ingredient supplied in the stream thereof comprises measuring the weight of a section of the stream of meat ingredient and controlling the rate of meat ingredient supplied in the stream thereof on the basis of the measured weight. * 14
7. A method according to claim 6, wherein the step of supplying a stream of the meat ingredient comprises supplying a stream of meat ingredient on a conveyor and the step of measuring the weight of a section of the stream of meat ingredient comprises measuring the weight of a section of the stream of meat ingredient on the conveyor using a load cell.
8. A method according to claim 7, wherein the step of supplying a stream of the meat ingredient further comprises pumping the stream of the meat ingredient onto the conveyor, the step of controlling the rate of meat ingredient supplied comprising controlling the rate of the meat ingredient pumped onto the conveyor.
9. A method according to any one of claims 5 to 8, further comprising controlling the rate of the dry bulk ingredient supplied in the stream thereof on basis of the weight of the dry bulk ingredient.
10. A method according to claim 9, wherein the step of supplying the stream of the dry bulk ingredient comprises supplying the stream of the dry bulk ingredient from a loss-in-weight feeder.
11. A method according to any one of claims Ito 10, wherein the dry bulk ingredient has a moisture content measured on a weight basis as a percentage of the total weight of the dry bulk ingredient of at most 55%, preferably at most 30%, more preferably at most 15%.
12. A method according to any one of claims Ito II, wherein the amount of dry bulk ingredient as a percentage by weight of the total weight of the dry bulk ingredient and meat ingredient is at least 4% and/or at most 30%, more preferably at most 18%.
13. An apparatus for mixing a meat ingredient comprising ground meat or meat substitute blended with fat with a dry bulk ingredient to form a meat product, the apparatus comprising an inline mixer arranged to mix the meat ingredient and the dry bulk ingredient to form the meat product and to output the meat product, and a supply arrangement arranged to continuously supply the meat ingredient and the dry bulk ingredient to the inline mixer.
14. An apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the inline mixer is a static inline mixer.
15. An apparatus according to claim 14 or 15, wherein the supply arrangement comprises a container, a feeder arrangement arranged to supply the meat ingredient into the container and a feeder arrangement arranged to supply the dry bulk ingredient into the container, and a pump arrangement that is arranged to transfer the contents of the container to the inline mixer.
16. An apparatus according to claim 15, wherein the pump arrangement includes an auger housed in the container,
17. An apparatus according to any one of claims 13 to 16, further comprising a control system arranged to control the rate of the meat ingredient supplied in the stream thereof in a predetermined proportion with respect to the rate of dry bulk ingredient supplied in the stream thereof on the basis of the weight of the meat ingredient.
18. An apparatus according to claim 17, wherein the apparatus further comprises a load cell arranged to measure the weight of a section of the stream of meat ingredient, the control system being arranged to control the rate of meat ingredient in the stream thereof on the basis of the weight measured by the load cell.
19. An apparatus according to claim 18, wherein the supply arrangement comprises a conveyor arranged to supply the stream of the meat ingredient, the load cell being arranged to measure the weight of a section of the stream of meat ingredient on the conveyor.
20. An apparatus according to claim 19, wherein the supply arrangement further comprises a pump arranged to pump the stream of the meat ingredient onto the conveyor, the control system arranged to control the rate of meat ingredient pumped onto the conveyor.
21. An apparatus according to any one of claims 17 to 20, wherein the control system is further arranged to control the rate of the dry bulk ingredient supplied in the stream thereof on basis of the weight of the dry bulk ingredient.
22. An apparatus according to claim 21, wherein the supply arrangement further comprises a loss-in-weight feeder arranged to supply the stream of the dry bulk ingredient, the control system being arranged to control the loss-in-weight feeder to control the rate of the dry bulk ingredient supplied in the stream thereof.
23. An apparatus according to any one of claims 13 to 22, wherein the dry bulk ingredient has a moisture content measured on a weight basis as a percentage of the total weight of the dry bulk ingredient of at most 55%, preferably at most 30%, more preferably at most 15%.
24. An apparatus according to any one of claims 13 to 23, wherein the amount of dry bulk ingredient as a percentage by weight of the total weight of the dry bulk ingredient and meat ingredient is at least 4% and/or at most 30%, more preferably at most 18%.
25. A method of mixing a meat ingredient comprising ground meat or meat substitute blended with fat with a dry bulk ingredient to form a meat product, the method comprising: supplying a stream of the meat ingredient and a stream of the dry bulk ingredient to a mixer, and during said supplying, controlling the rate of meat ingredient supplied in the stream thereof in a predetermined proportion with respect to the rate of dry bulk ingredient supplied in the stream thereof on the basis of the weight of the meat ingredient.
26. A method according to claim 25, wherein the step of controlling the rate of meat ingredient supplied in the stream thereof comprises measuring the weight of a section of the stream of meat ingredient and controlling the rate of meat ingredient supplied in the stream thereof on the basis of the measured weight.
27. A method according to claim 26, wherein the step of supplying a stream of the meat ingredient comprises supplying a stream of meat ingredient on a conveyor and the step of measuring the weight of a section of the stream of meat ingredient comprises measuring the weight of a section of the stream of meat ingredient on the conveyor using a load cell.
28. A method according to claim 27, wherein the step of supplying a stream of the meat ingredient further comprises pumping the stream of the meat ingredient onto the conveyor, the step of controlling the rate of meat ingredient supplied comprising controlling the amount of the meat ingredient pumped onto the conveyor.
29. A method according to any one of 25 to 28, further comprising controlling the rate of the dry bulk ingredient supplied in the stream thereof on basis of the weight of the dry bulk ingredient.
30. A method according to claim 29, wherein the step of supplying the stream of the dry bulk ingredient comprises supplying the stream of the dry bulk ingredient from a loss-in-weight feeder.
31. A method according to any one of claims 25 to 30, wherein the mixer comprises an inline mixer.
32. A method according to claim 31, wherein the inline mixer is a static inline mixer.
33. A method according to any one of claims 25 to 32, wherein the step of supplying a stream of the meat ingredient and a stream of the dry bulk ingredient to the mixer comprises supplying the stream of the meat ingredient and the stream of the dry bulk ingredient into a container that feeds a pump arrangement that is operative to transfer the meat product to the mixer.
34. A method according to claim 33, wherein the pump arrangement includes an auger in the base of the container.
35. A method according to any one of claims 25 to 34, wherein the dry bulk ingredient has a moisture content measured on a weight basis as a percentage of the total weight of the dry bulk ingredient of at most 55%, preferably at most 30%, more preferably at most 15%.
36. A method according to any one of claims 25 to 35, wherein the amount of dry bulk ingredient as a percentage by weight of the total weight of the dry bulk ingredient and meat ingredient is at least 4% and/or at most 30%, more preferably at most 18%.
37. An apparatus for mixing a meat ingredient comprising ground meat or meat substitute blended with fat with a dry bulk ingredient to form a meat product, the apparatus comprising a mixer arranged to mix the meat ingredient and the dry bulk ingredient to form the meat product and to output the meat product, and a supply arrangement arranged to supply a stream of the meat ingredient and a stream of the dry bulk ingredient to the mixer, a control system arranged to control the rate of meat ingredient supplied in the stream thereof, in a predetermined proportion with respect to the rate of dry bulk ingredient supplied in the stream thereof, on the basis of the weight of the meat ingredient.
38. An apparatus according to claim 37, wherein the apparatus further comprises a load cell arranged to measure the weight of a section of the stream of meat ingredient, * 19 the control system being arranged to control the rate of meat ingredient supplied in the stream thereof on the basis of the weight measured by the load cell.
39. An apparatus according to claim 38, wherein the supply arrangement comprises a conveyor arranged to supply the stream of the meat ingredient, the load cell being arranged to measure the weight of a section of the stream of meat ingredient on the conveyor.
40. An apparatus according to claim 39, wherein the supply arrangement further comprises a pump arranged to pump the stream of the meat ingredient onto the conveyor, the control system arranged to control the rate of meat ingredient pumped onto the conveyor.
41. An apparatus according to any one of claims 37 to 40, wherein the control system is further arranged to control the rate of the dry bulk ingredient supplied in the stream thereof on basis of the weight of the dry bulk ingredient.
42. An apparatus according to claim 41, wherein the supply arrangement further comprises a loss-in-weight feeder arranged to supply the stream of the dry bulk ingredient, the control system being arranged to control the loss-in-weight feeder to control the rate of the dry bulk ingredient supplied in the stream thereof.
43. An apparatus according to any one of claims 37 to 42, wherein the mixer is an inline mixer.
44. An apparatus according to claim 43, wherein the mixer is a static inline mixer.
45. An apparatus according to any one of claims 37 to 44, wherein the supply arrangement comprises a container, a feeder arrangement arranged to supply the stream of the meat ingredient into the container and a feeder arrangement arranged to supply the stream of the dry bulk ingredient into the container, and * 20 a pump arrangement that is arranged to transfer the contents of the container to the mixer.
46. An apparatus according to claim 45, wherein the pump arrangement includes an auger housed in the container.
47. An apparatus according to any one of claims 37 to 46, wherein the dry bulk ingredient has a moisture content measured on a weight basis as a percentage of the total weight of the dry bulk ingredient of at most 55%, preferably at most 30%, more preferably at most 15%.
48. An apparatus according to any one of claims 37 to 47, wherein the amount of dry bulk ingredient as a percentage by weight of the total weight of the dry bulk ingredient and meat ingredient is at least 4% and/or at most 30%, more preferably at most 18%.
49. A method of mixing a meat ingredient and a bulk dry ingredient substantially as hereinbefore discarded with reference to the accompanying drawings.
50. A method of mixing a meat ingredient and a bulk dry ingredient constructed and arranged substantially as hereinbefore discarded with reference to the accompanying drawings.