In many parts of the world, such as in Eastern Europe, most of the goose processing lines are combined duck/goose lines. It is Marel’s challenge to enable proper processing of such a mixed supply of birds with different shapes, sizes and weights, from Peking ducks of about 3 kilos live weight to geese weighing 9 kilos. Such variations are especially challenging in the evisceration department. Fortunately, Marel PMJ makes it easy to adjust a number of basic parts of the eviscerator, such as the spoon, the leg spreader and the lung extractor. These are quick changeover systems that will take about fifteen minutes of work to switch, allowing processors to make fully combined lines with a small conversion. When such lines process ducks one day and geese the next day, a changeover can be done during the cleaning time, which makes combined processing profitable in this way.

The common opinion is that the traditional French foie gras birds are geese, but the entire foie gras industry in France is about a special breed of ducks that are very close to geese.

Birds that are traditionally stuffed with corn using a funnel (a method that is considered to be not very humane) are simply impossible to process industrially. Machines can’t be adjusted to that, because the entire esophagus is completely filled with raw corn.