A system is provided for cutting a three-dimensional portion from a foodstuff. The system includes a conveyor for carrying a foodstuff to be portioned, a scanner located adjacent to the conveyor for scanning the foodstuff, a computer coupled to the scanner for receiving scan information from the scanner to determine one or more cutting paths for the foodstuff, and a cutter for portioning the foodstuff according to the one or more determined cutting paths. The computer is configured to perform generally four steps: (i) receiving scan information of the foodstuff from the scanner; (ii) building a three-dimensional map of the foodstuff based on the received scan information of the foodstuff; (iii) fitting at least one desired shape, which is stored in memory of the computer, onto the three-dimensional map in the memory of the computer; and (iv) determining one or more cutting paths to be used in portioning the foodstuff so as to produce one or more portioned foodstuffs corresponding to the at least one desired shape.