The assembly (100) for handling a paste mass, especially sausage meat, has a vacuum hopper (1) with an inlet (7) for filling and an outlet (13) to take off the meat. A valve (3) is at the inlet, to maintain an underpressure within the hopper. When the valve is open, it forms a gap for the meat to pass through, with a gap height (h) which can be set to determine the rate of meat evacuation.
