Cutting of large potatoes

An apparatus for cutting potato slices, the apparatus comprising an annular-shaped cutting head and a central impeller coaxially mounted for rotation within the cutting head for delivering potatoes radially outwardly toward the cutting head, the impeller having a base with an upper surface across which potatoes are, in use, delivered to the cutting head, a plurality of knives serially mounted annularly around the cutting head, each knife having a cutting edge extending substantially upwardly and spaced from the cutting head to provide a gap, extending in a radial direction, between the first cutting edge and the cutting head, and a plurality of orientation elements serially and annularly mounted within the impeller to define a plurality of cutting zones located around the impeller, each cutting zone being between adjacent orientation elements, wherein radially inner parts of adjacent orientation elements are separated in a substantially circumferential direction to define between adjacent orientation elements a throat for passage there through of a potato in a radially outward direction into the respective cutting zone toward the cutting head, wherein the throat has a width of from 70 to 140 mm.