This invention includes a system for cutting food products, such as
potatoes, into proportional length pieces. In a one embodiment, the
system includes a cutting assembly, sensors upstream of the cutting
assembly and a programmable logic controller. The cutting assembly
preferably includes a housing defining a passageway, at least two
separately actuatable stops extendable into the passageway to provide an
abutment to hold the food product in place, and at least two separately
actuatable blades for slicing the food product into pieces. The
controller cooperates with the sensors to determine the length of each
food product and, based on a length determinative algorithm, selectively
actuate one of the stops and at least one of the blades to determine how
many times the food product will be sliced and location of the cut(s)
relative to the leading end of the food product.