A meat grinder or meat mincer is a kitchen appliance for grinding, fine mincing or mixing raw or cooked meat, fish, vegetables or similar food. It replaces tools like the mincing knife, for example, which has been used to produce minced meat, filling etc. The producer puts the minced food into a funnel, which is placed on the top of the grinder. From there the material goes on a horizontal screw conveyor. This screw conveyor, that can be powered by a hand wheel or an electric motor, squashes and partially mixes the food. At the end of the screw conveyor there is a knife installed directly in front of the fixed hole plate. At this opening the minced meat comes out of the machine. The fineness of the meat depends on the size of the holes of the plate. The meat grinder was invented by Karl Drais in the 19th century.

By changing the hole plate it is also possible to produce breadcrumbs or fill sausages. After the drop from the retainer, it is possible to change the hole plate. By removing the fixing screw the grinder can be disassembled completely for cleaning. Besides the domestic manually or motor operated grinders, there are also grinders for butchery (table- or shop-grinders for example) and for the food industry. Some large machines are able to produce several tons per hour.

For these machines the Typ-C-norm DIN EN 12331 "machines for the food industry - butchery grinders - safety- and hygiene requirements" from 2004-5 with the change from 2007-A2, is applied.

Mixer unit

A basic optional feature for larger grinders is the mixer unit. With this unit can be mixed different kinds of meat(for example beef or pork) with each other homogeneously and/or can be mixed the meat with additives, like salt or spices, before grinding it. Without such a mixer unit, the additives must be mixed into the meat after grinding it, which adversely affects the taste and appearance of most products.

Frozen meat grinder

Frozen meat grinders can process frozen blocks of meat, bacon and MDM up to –25 °C. The frozen blocks can range from 90x50x15 cm to 90x50x20 cm, and the power can applies from 8.000 kg to 12.000 kg. By the regular cutting the chopped meat can be processed through mixers and grinders, which reach an optimal addition in the cutter as well as a protection of the

cutter and knifes.There are 2 different drive forms, a single rev-drive, which is ideal to grind frozen meat blocks, and a two rev-drive, which promises higher power by the application of a special meat worm.

The first cut takes place in the worm, who peels with his long pulled, sharpen meander/bend approximately 8 cm from the frozen meat and then to pass on for the next cut in the cutting set . The lock protection prevents possible mechanical damages in too high burden/load, for example by a foreign body.