Six reasons to automate turkey processing

Besides attention to production efficiency, yield and product quality, observing the highest animal welfare standards gains considerable importance. Consumers want to know that the turkeys, whose meat they eat, have been treated humanely.

In terms of turkey processing, the main welfare advance has been in stunning, where the use of controlled atmospheres is beginning to make inroads into traditional electrical stunning.

With a controlled atmosphere stunning system, live turkeys are no longer hung fully conscious to the killing line. This development benefits not just the birds but also the operatives hanging them. Marel offers a multi-stage CAS system, where birds are conveyed smoothly into atmospheres progressively richer in CO2. Marel also adds oxygen to the mix and humidifies it, ensuring that the anesthetization process happens gradually and smoothly.

Combining controlled atmosphere stunning with the Marel GP containerized live bird handling system offers optimal welfare-friendly conditions for transport from the growing farm to the processing plant and induction into the process itself. On arrival at the processing plant, live birds are unloaded automatically in a single smooth conveyor movement. If stunned using controlled atmosphere, birds move seamlessly into this system.

Marel’s new Inside/Outside Washer flushes water through the carcass, which can then be recirculated. Water is an increasingly scarce resource in our warming world, which we should use as sparingly as possible. At this point, it is worth noting that an automatic process uses less water than a manual one.

The use of water is a key issue in sustainable turkey processing. Conventional immersion water chilling systems are still the industry standard in many markets. Air chilling is, however, becoming ever more popular. Marel air chilling systems, the result of many years’ experience of chilling turkeys, produce top quality, tasty and succulent carcasses at a huge saving in water usage.

A typical air chilling system consists of shock chill and equalization tunnels. At the heart of both are overhead conveyor systems, which take turkeys through both processes. In the DownFlow Plus Shock chiller, all external and internal surfaces are chilled quickly with a forceful current of very cold air to prevent the growth of harmful bacteria. DownFlow Plus cabinets mounted at variable points during the process apply a thin film of moisture to surfaces, safeguarding yield and allowing the precise management of color and presentation. In the Equalization Chiller, where turkeys spend a lot longer, further chilling and maturation take place using less cold air at lower velocities. The chiller’s microclimate has been designed to keep carcass temperature for as long as possible within the zone, where the enzymes responsible for maturation are at their most active.

Automating the entire turkey process requires quite some diverse knowledge and equipment. Having just one company responsible for the automation of both primary and secondary processes has many obvious advantages. As a unique value proposition, Marel is able to be that single-stop solution to automating turkey processing.

A Marel Innova software package can provide the icing on the cake. Innova oversees both primary and secondary processes, giving real-time insight into each part process and presenting its information centrally in clear visual reports. Plant management can follow order fulfillment, yield and product quality on a minute-by-minute basis. Should there be any unforeseen and unwelcome variance, remedial action can be taken immediately, ensuring top overall production efficiency.