The present invention provides a
food waste disposer having an upper food conveying section, a motor section, a central
grinding section and a controller. The upper food conveying section includes a housing forming an inlet to receive
food waste. The motor section includes a switched reluctance
machine having a rotor and a
stator. The rotor imparts rotational movement to a rotatable shaft. The central
grinding section is disposed between the food conveying section and the motor section. The food conveying section conveys
food waste to the
grinding section. The grinding section includes a grinding mechanism where a portion of the grinding mechanism is mounted to the rotatable shaft. The controller is electrically connected to the
stator to control the switched reluctance
machine. The controller is capable of directing rotational movement to the rotatable shaft and the portion of the grinding mechanism mounted to the rotatable shaft. The controller is further capable of maintaining the rotational movement of the rotatable shaft at more than one rotational speed. The present invention also includes methods of operating a variable speed motor in different operational
modes such as idle mode and anti-jamming mode.