Potato-strip cutting deceleration system

The invention relates to a food processing system with a deceleration element for decelerating food in a fluid medium after it is passed through a processing unit. More particularly, the invention relates to a food cutting system, such as for cutting potato strips, with a deceleration element that minimizes flow-vortices that would interfere with the optimum processing of the food or that would damage the processed food. The invention relates to a food processing system. A fluid conduit of the system is configured for directing the food carried in a fluid medium along a food path. The system has a food inlet operatively associated with the fluid conduit for feeding the food into the conduit, and a pump operatively associated with the conduit for pumping the fluid through the conduit in a fluid stream direction. A processor unit is associated with the conduit, disposed along the food path, and includes a tool configured and associated with the conduit for performing a processing operation on the food, such as cutting potatoes into french fry strips. The system also has a deceleration element operatively associated with the conduit and configured for decelerating the fluid and carried food along the food path while maintaining the fluid flow substantially free of recirculation vortices.