5 questions about vision grading in poultry processing

IRIS is an extremely flexible system. It can be installed in as many as four different locations in the factory, each with different benefits. Jeroen Pol, Marel poultry product specialist, says: “Almost immediately after arrival, the products, including feathers, can already be visually assessed by IRIS DF to determine the quality of the total flock. In the subsequent phase, still before the chilling phase, the products have an optimal presentation with stretched wings and legs, so that IRIS EV can spot various things well at that location.” Shape, color and texture are assessed to spot defects such as bruises, fractures, skin lesions, feather remains and fecal matter.

After cooling, IRIS GDR can also view the products in their final form, in order to determine their final destination: will they be chicken legs in a bulk packaging or will they be precisely weighed fillets on a tray? In a phase further downstream, IRIS NT can examine individual chicken parts such as wings even better. “Wherever IRIS is in the process, the visual assessment is super fast; it takes less than a second to make important decisions about a pending customer order,” says Jeroen Pol.
Even in the final processing stage, when fillets are conveyed on a belt, it is possible to apply vision grading for quality assessment and distribution. Combined with product sensors, Innova PDS and a fillet distribution system, Marel’s IRIS FI (Fillet Inspection) camera is able to filter out products that don't meet the criteria. 

Carcass balance, or the need to use all parts of an animal in a profitable way, is a pillar of sustainability in the food industry. Around the planet the awareness of carcass balancing in the poultry industry is growing. For more and more people using just the breast meat of carefully reared chicken and underrating the rest, perfectly edible food rich in proteins, is not making sense. One small damaged part may not be the reason to completely downgrade a whole chicken; that is not very sustainable.

For maximum carcass balance, vision grading is the ideal tool: precise assessment at the right time and at the right spot enables the optimal use of every part of the chicken to make a valuable end product. No part is left unused; products of lower visual quality aren’t thrown away. On the contrary, these perfectly edible parts can very well be further processed into high-quality minced meat products or sausages. And of course, products with an A-grade quality have all options open for the downstream process. They will proceed to the regular production streams, be it as whole product or cut-up. In this way, vision grading adds enormous value to the sustainable use of every product, whatever quality it may have.