The Poultry Processing Blueprint: An Introduction

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1 The Poultry Processing Blueprint: An Introduction As one of the primary sources of supply to supermarkets and grocery stores worldwide, the poultry industry is regularly scrutinised for its adherence to ever-evolving standards concerning quality and food safety. Yet in an era where margins are routinely squeezed, processors are under pressure to find new ways of boosting profitability. Over the course of this white paper, we will examine some of the factors affecting the industry as a whole, before explaining how an emerging philosophy can help processors to boost their margins, raise the quality of their final product, and ultimately comply with the ever-tightening quality and safety standards. By going on to show how this theory has already been put into practice by two major players, we hope to demonstrate the manner in which the smarter, more efficient use of people, equipment, and raw materials can really change poultry processing for the better. Change certainly doesn t happen overnight, but in an industry where marginal gains can make a huge difference, poultry processors are faced with one huge opportunity. Ulrich Carlin Nielsen Director of Business Solutions, Ishida

2 Unprecedented Pressure The global food system is coming under increasing and sustained pressure. The root cause is population growth which is expected to continue over the next years. By 2050 the worldwide population is expected to be 9.7 billion, which will place extraordinary pressure on the food supply chain. A further impact on this dynamic will come from the new middle classes in emerging economies. In fact, middle class spending power is projected to increase by $29 trillion by 2030 with an average growth rate of 4% per annum (Brookings Institute). And, as the middle classes grow and become more affluent, particularly in the emerging economies of Asia, they demand a more Western diet. According to statistics from Pilgrim s Pride, one of America s largest poultry producers, the rising middle class of developing countries will account for 77% of demand. The demand for poultry products specifically will be enormous, with Pilgrim s Pride estimating a 1.2% annual growth rate of chicken production worldwide. sustainability and their place in a responsible food chain. Chief among these will be the demand from supermarkets for sustainable farming practices with minimal impact on the final shelf price. Intensive poultry production practices have been the subject of high profile campaigns from organisations like Compassion in World Farming and fronted by celebrity chefs, such as Jamie Oliver, highlighting a range of welfare and environmental concerns, with the ultimate aim of improving chicken welfare. Concerns have been expressed over the treatment of birds, energy usage, waste generation and pollution of air, soil and water. At the same time, the industry faces increasing scrutiny over standards of food safety and biosecurity. For the poultry processing industry, solving these issues will come at a price. If costs are to increase, because of the need to clean the water used in the slaughtering process, for example, efficiencies will have to be made elsewhere, in order to remain competitive. However, while demand will increase, other factors are likely to keep a lid on profitability and force processors to be more efficient without compromising their commitment to That is the challenge that faces the poultry processing industry. The question is, where can these efficiencies be made? 2

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4 Getting your process in-line Exactly how its product is handled is key to any given food supplier s success. After all, the efficiency with which raw material can be turned into a finished product largely determines the price it can command in an extremely competitive marketplace. If handling a product is capable of adding cost and compromising hygiene, touching, moving, or storing meat before it has been processed will always bring with it a degree of risk. Not only can unnecessary handling harm your ever-tightening profit margin, but it can also leave you falling short of retailers established food safety and biosecurity standards. Double handling. It s a false economy! You may not have ever seen it this way, but every time one of your staff takes your product and puts it anywhere other than its next destination along the processing line, the product incurs extra cost to your business. Why? Because the longer a product spends away from the processing line, the longer it takes to be weighed, graded, marinated, packed, or indeed sold from the supermarket shelf. For every additional minute the product remains stagnant, your business is paying for it to be stored, cooled, or moved. And for that same period of time, that particular cut of meat is not as fresh as it could have been when it eventually reaches the retailer. Let s say you have a product chain which involves one of your staff removing a batch of chicken from a drum, loading it onto a trolley, and driving it into a cold store where it is kept for 24 hours before being removed and taken to the processing line. This may be a common scenario, but it is also double-handling at its most prevalent, and it is limiting the profit margins of countless processors around the world. Why store fresh meat if you don t have to? Why take 24 hours to process a batch of chicken when you could do it in just two minutes? And why give your customers chicken which is four or five days old by the time it reaches their shelves? Every one of these difficulties can be avoided by changing the processing philosophy to one which is much more dynamic, and much more productive. What is in-line processing? In-line processing is a philosophy which derives from lean manufacturing, and relies on the product being on the move at all times. Applying an in-line approach to poultry processing means ensuring meat stays on the move from feeding and weighing to the despatch of your final, packaged product. The processing of poultry has historically been a slow and cumbersome procedure, requiring high numbers of staff and vast amounts of factory space. Thanks to technological developments however, there is now much greater potential to save time, money, and space, not to mention improve the quality of the final product stocked on supermarket shelves. Put simply, in-line processing is where automated technologies, optimised plant design, and flexibility of resource come together. 4

5 The five benefits of an effective in-line process 1 much quicker than the sum of its parts. Higher speed A fully-automated, in-line process will perform Advances in technology mean that multihead weighers can work intuitively with compact packing and batching tables, while checkweighers can also swiftly validate the weight of the finished pack. Whether carrying out grading by weight or producing fixed-weight batches within set tolerances and pre-determined piece counts, the beauty of an automated process is how quickly the meat is transformed from its raw state to the finished product. Even processes such as marinading can take place on the weigher, prior to packaging, which lessens the need for the processing line to be stopped, or for the weigher to be cleaned when moving from one piece to another. In many cases, there really is no need for it to be removed from the line until it is ready for distribution. 2 it with no pauses, no avoidable Improved accuracy Processing your product in-line means processing transportation, and no sporadic periods of storage. We all know what can happen to products when they are moved around unnecessarily they can get lost, damaged, and their quality can begin to deteriorate. If all of this is taking place away from the process line, the accuracy of the products weight, appearance, size and shape can all be compromised. Why take that chance? Accuracy of processing also has implications for accuracy of labelling, which is crucial for your customers, and just as important for the consumers buying their poultry from the supermarket shelves. In-line processing gives you much greater capacity to adjust your labels as you go, which is the perfect scenario for those processing packs of different weights, quantities, or types of product. 3 Maximum yield Without in-line processing, there is a heightened tendency for product to be left stagnant for several hours. This in turn causes juices and moisture from the meat to evaporate, which ultimately reduces the yield. The same issue can occur when product is transported unnecessarily around a plant, away from the processing line and into storage. Excess squeezing can again remove moisture from the product, which, in turn, reduces its quality. Either of these or a combination of both is capable of reducing the yield by as much as 1% - a figure undoubtedly large enough to affect your bottom line. 4 Superior quality If your process is quicker, your weighing is more accurate, and your yield is improved, the cumulative result is an enhanced quality of product. With major retailers making no secret of the demands they are asking of suppliers, delivering to the highest standards of food safety and quality is key to securing your status as a preferred supplier. 5 Scalability Thankfully for many, in-line processing isn t a binary concept. It is not a simple case of you either having an in-line process in place or not having one, meaning it can be adopted however your business deems to be the most practical. For some, that means applying the in-line philosophy to a section of their process, keeping the remainder off-line, while for others, it means structuring their whole process in such a way from start to finish.. Regardless of how much of your process you re willing to bring in-line, you can rest assured that relatively simple upgrades can take a process from 50% in-line to 100% in-line relatively quickly. Ultimately, each of these benefits has favourable consequences for your business s bottom line maximising productivity by boosting your process speed, to maximising your yield by reducing giveaway. Of even greater appeal is the way in which this can help your business to mitigate the impact of the growing global population and the unprecedented pressure it puts the global food supply chain under. While these issues may not manifest themselves overnight, the time to start thinking about in-line processing is now. 5

6 In-line in action Almarai, Saudi Arabia When Almarai launched its Alyoum brand of premium chicken products, what began as a 21,000 bph (birds per hour) factory and farming site escalated over a 3-year period to become a 37,000 bph facility. With growing consumer demand for fixed weight packs of breast fillets, drumsticks, thighs, legs, wings, or combinations of different pieces, Almarai s objective was to be able to satisfy such demand with fully sealed, fixed-weight products meeting the highest standards of hygiene and presentation. In order to meet this need, Almarai invested in equipment including rehanging and cut-up systems, deboning machinery, multihead weighers, checkweighers, tray sealers and batching and grading systems as well as X-ray inspection systems and metal detectors. For whole birds, there are separate lines for packing into bags and trays. Special fillet lines pack chicken breasts that have been removed with the greatest precision and then X-ray inspected for bone fragments. There are also separate packing lines for thighs, legs, wings and drumsticks, where little or none of the chicken is wasted thanks to additional lines also for giblets and feet. Other lines are devoted to producing mixtures of chicken pieces, such as drums, chops and wings, according to availability or market demand. Integration & automation Crucially for the operation, the level of integration is exceptional. Live bird handling, slaughter, evisceration, chilling, cut-up, deboning, batching and grading, weighing, piece mixing, packing, labelling and crating are all linked by, and contribute to, information exchange that enhances quality, efficiency and speed. Weighing and packing processes were also automated to the same advanced level. As well as being quick enough to keep up with the cut-up lines, giveaway was also reduced to exceptionally low levels. This perfectly equips the Ha il plant to meet demand far into the future and remain at the forefront of the market s movement towards poultry pieces sold in fixed weight packs. The factory, with its 200 million birds per year capacity, is now one of the largest single output poultry plants in the world. 6

7 Faccenda Foods, UK With a reputation for innovation in the poultry industry, Faccenda Foods excels through its commitment to continually improve quality. This prompted the business to identify a need for two flexible and spacesaving solutions at its state-of-theart poultry portioning plant. One for weighing and packing chicken legs and drumsticks, and another for weighing chicken fillets into trays. Both systems utilise Ishida s pioneering screwfeeder multihead weighing technology which features the familiar circular multihead weigher layout but incorporates rotating corkscrews to replace the traditionally-used radial feeders. The screws provide a powerful, controlled and fully automatic product feed to the hoppers. The weighers are combined with Ishida s versatile Rotobatchers, with accurately weighed portions despatched to a series of packing stations on a batching table, where an operator places the product into a tray and styles it for effective presentation prior to the tray being sealed. Positioning the Rotobatcher directly beneath the weigher maximises the use of space and has enabled Faccenda to create a highly efficient layout for its legs and drumstick operation, with the four combinations placed closely together in a square configuration. This in turn provides the greatest flexibility for the packing operation, giving four different options depending on how the birds have been graded, with two of the screwfeeder weighers incorporating 5 litre hoppers to deal with whole legs and two weighers incorporating three litre hoppers for the smaller drumsticks. Proven results Target weights for the legs and drumstick packs vary from 900g to 2.1kg. Having replaced a belt grading and packing system, the new process has delivered a 30% reduction in giveaway. Overall throughput has also been improved by around 25%, with each operator now able to handle around 3.5kg of product per minute compared to 2.8kg with the previous system. For the chicken fillet packing line, the screwfeeder weigher features 2 litre hoppers with scraper gates that ensure effective product transfer of the sticky fillets. Target weights are 500g to 765g with the line operating at around 40 packs per minute, well within the capabilities of the weigher. The 35 million factory is capable of processing up to 1.5 million whole birds per week, with the process from initial hanging to sealed pack taking just nine minutes. 7

8 Sauce code: Avoiding waste & increasing speed with in-line marination While every part of the poultry process can now be automated across one single line, no single one typifies the advancement of in-line processing technology more than the latest marination equipment. Orbicote from Ishida is a revolutionary approach to automating the marination process while carefully controlling the amounts of product and marinade that go into each pack. How it works With Orbicote, weighing takes place before marination. Each multihead-weighed portion is channelled into a mini-drum where it is tumbled with a set dose of marinade, allowing it to take up a thorough coverage before the entire drum contents are cleanly ejected into the packing system. How is it possible to do this at sufficient speed to keep up with the output of a multihead weigher? By having up to 12 minidrums close together in an orbital arrangement, synchronised with the weigher and with a downstream tray filling system, for example. A highly effective approach Comprehensive testing was carried out to discover the optimum mini-drum configuration, drum rotation speed and number of rotations needed for thorough coating of product pieces with marinade. As part of this programme, product pieces were examined by food industry marination specialists and assessed for degree of coverage (i.e. marinade adhering to the surface). In 500 tests, the Orbicote mini-drum system met or exceeded their rating of satisfactory coverage. Making costly sauces go further Orbicote ensures that essentially all of the marinade reaches the pack, with a high proportion of it adhering uniformly to the product. This contrasts with conventional approaches where losses of marinade can be as high as 8%. Secure loading of product and sauce into mini-drums The interface between the chutes that carry the product from the weigher and the mouths of the constantly rotating minidrums is carefully engineered to ensure a clean and secure transfer. The sauce is accurately and decisively dosed into the mini-drums using a volumetric depositing system. 8

9 Gentle handling delivers product to pack in top condition Short drop distances and a gentle tumbling process in drums of just 30cm diameter help avoid mechanical damage to the product. Easy-to-clean, allowing rapid changeovers With easy access to all parts of the machine and with contact parts (including the mini-drums) readily removable, Orbicote can undergo a changeover, including a change of marinade, in around 15 minutes. Simple and safe to operate Rapid access is not achieved at the cost of operator safety. Orbicote is comprehensively guarded, the gates being readily openable and removable when the machine is not operating. Rapid marination that immediately transforms your factory s capabilities Rejected weights cannot hold up the show A patented feature of Ishida multihead weighers allows wrong weights to be detected and rejected virtually simultaneously, so that a correct weight can be chosen in place of a faulty one and discharged into the marinating system without missing a full beat. This adds to the speed and throughput achieved. In addition, any rejection takes place before a wrong weighment reaches the Orbicote system, so no marinade is wasted on rejected portions. A system stop won t force a reset Orbicote can form a product buffer in the event of a downstream stop. When you turn it on again, the system will continue without resetting or failing. No-tray-no-fill The Orbicote mini-drum will not expel its contents unless a tray is waiting underneath. And when an unemptied drum makes its way around to the filling point, there will be no further addition of product. When used with an Ishida 14-head weigher, the Orbicote can fill over 55 trays per minute. A line design for the overall marinading system is shown below, with the unmarinated product arriving from the left, whether in batches or by conveyor directly from a cut-up system. No empty trays sent for sealing If the weigher misses a dump, the unemptied drum carries on around the circuit. Unfilled trays will remain at the line start until filled, so no empty trays will clutter the line or the sealing system. 9

10 Conclusion It is clear that the poultry processing industry is faced with a number of challenges, but ultimately one major opportunity. With the global population on the rise, western eating habits becoming more commonplace, and food standards becoming ever more stringent, processors will need to streamline their operations. In-line processing is a philosophy with huge potential to enhance how these businesses operate. The more efficient use of people, equipment, products, and space will enable poultry processors to boost their profit margins at a time when the path to profitability is often unclear. While we have seen how some of the industry s major players have begun to adopt the principles of in-line processing, there is a huge potential for many more to follow their lead. The real beauty of the in-line concept is the manner in which it can be adopted however an individual plant finds is the most practical, with ample opportunity to widen its scope over time. By applying this in-line philosophy to some, if not all, of a given poultry process, suppliers from around the globe will be able to maintain an upward trajectory in terms of profit, quality, and sustainability, for many years to come. Ulrich Carlin Nielsen Director of Business Solutions, Ishida