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 sausage making. 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.
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.