Any African poultry processor whose business is growing will one day face the decision to move from manual to automatic evisceration. When this day comes, what are the options?
Once a poultry processor has started processing industrially, he will have installed a scalder, plucker and overhead conveyor systems for the killing, defeathering and evisceration processes.
Hand tools
Capacity increases will affect the evisceration department the most. At low hourly throughputs, most evisceration operations will be done manually using specialised hand tools. At a given moment, however, processing plant management will have to think about automating the evisceration process. This will depend on a number of factors such as the cost of labour and space available. As capacities increase, more people will be needed for each manual process, and these people will need space in which to work.
Automatic evisceration
At this stage, the installation of an automatic eviscerator will save people and space by eviscerating all carcasses cleanly and accurately to a consistent standard. Marel’s Nuova CoreTech eviscerator has been designed for poultry processors making the switch from manual to automatic evisceration. CoreTech deposits the drawn viscera pack over the back of the carcass. The pack is then suitably presented for efficient veterinary inspection, after which edible giblets can be conveniently harvested by hand.
Grow with needs
CoreTech will handle up to 6,000 broilers per hour. Should users exceed this throughput, they have the option of upgrading. Having started using 10 units, they can easily double this to 20 units. Furthermore, they have the ability to transfer the drawn viscera pack to a separate pack shackle. Giblets can then be harvested manually, or a start made with automatic giblet harvesting equipment.
Replacing other operations
Thought can also be given to replacing hand-held vent and lung guns. Marel’s VOC combined venting and opening machine deposits each drilled vent neatly over the back of the carcass and opens carcasses without damaging the underlying viscera pack. Lung guns can be replaced by an automatic vacuum-assisted carrousel final inspection machine, whose units descend into the carcass cavity to suck out any loose debris.
[“At one point, hiring more workers for evisceration isn’t the solution to growing capacity anymore”]