A food processing system 10 comprising a cooking apparatus 12 and a cooling apparatus 14. The apparatus 12, 14 are similar and are configured for processing sausages which have casings which are fragile and easily ruptured. The apparatus 12 comprises a processing vessel 16 for containing a cooking liquid, a feed chute 18, a guide means in the form of jets 56.1, 56.2 and 56.3, a screw conveyer 22 and a discharge conveyer 24. The sausages are fed into the vessel 16 via feed chute 18. The jets 56.1, 56.2 and 56.3 guide the sausages into optimal positions relative to the screw conveyer 22 which conveys the sausages to the discharge conveyer 24. The jets 56.1, 56.2 and 56.3 also separate the sausages ensuring that the sausages do not &ldquo；bunch up&rdquo； when deposited into the vessel 16 and also ensure that the sausages are aligned and travel in a direction substantially parallel to the axis of rotation of the screw conveyer 22 thereby to reduce impact forces applied to the sausages by the conveyer 22.
