Sam Stein Associates, Inc.

Richard J Hummel

Michael E Miller

In a typical breading machine for automatically coating the exterior surfaces of edible products such as for example seafoods, poultry, red meats and vegetables, a method and apparatus for distributing and sifting what is defined in the art as Japanese style bread crumbs which display a wide variation in crumb sizes. The typical breading machine provides for the conveyance of the product to be coated along a conveyance or coating path on a bed of breading placed on the conveyance means at a first location whereby the surfaces of said product which engage said bed are coated with breading. A separate quantity of breading is subsequently presented to the product being conveyed at a second location along the conveyance path whereby the remaining surfaces of the product are coated with breading. The method of this invention and apparatus for producing said method provides for the distribution and then sifting of a single recycled homogenous flow of Japanese style bread crumbs into two separate flows, a first flow having a preponderance of finer particles of said crumbs and a second flow having a preponderance of larger particles of said crumbs, said first flow being directed to the said first location on the conveyance path and said second flow being directed to the said second location on the conveyance path, whereby the individual surfaces of the product may each be engaged with the composition of crumbs best suited to produce an identical coating on all surfaces of the product.

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Sandusky, OH, United States of America

Richard J Hummel