Handling pork loins

Claim 1

An improved method of trimming meat items of variable non-uniform weight and size to an appropriate accurate weight selected from a plurality of acceptable weights, said method comprising: establishing a series of at least two contiguous weight ranges from the available spread of individual weights of said meat items wherein for each said range the increments of weight above a base weight for each range tend to vary linearly with increments of length measured from one end of said meat items; determining the linear relationship between increments of weight and increments of length measured from said one end of said meat items for each said range; thereafter measuring the weight of each successive meat item; generating a first signal for each successive meat item, said first signal representing the amount of weight of said item; assigning each successive meat item to an appropriate weight range in accordance with said first signal; converting each said first signal to a second signal representing a number of increments of length of said meat item measured from said one end thereof that will include the excess weight of said item above a base weight in said appropriate weight range; and severing a portion from each respective meat item measured by length from said one end, said portion being of a length corresponding to the number of increments represented by said second signal for each respective meat item.