Obtain Perfect Yellow Chickens: Protect the Epidermis during Scalding and Picking

Effective Feather Removal While Preserving Epidermis

Feathers grow from follicles in the skin, which are complex tubular structures designed to keep the feathers securely in place. Within each follicle, the feather is attached to the papilla where it was formed and is further supported by connective tissue, muscles, and other structures. The force required to remove a feather, known as the ‘Feather Release Force’ (FRF), must be reduced to effectively pluck the birds. Several factors affect the FRF, including the bird's age, stress conditions, the onset of rigor mortis, stunning procedures, the feather's location, etc. However, the most critical factors are the scalding method, duration, and temperature.

To preserve the valued yellow pigmentation in chicken products, it is crucial to maintain the integrity of the outer skin layer, the epidermis, during the defeathering process. Striking the right balance between loosening the feathers in their follicles and maintaining product quality is essential. Excessive temperature or prolonged scalding can denature the underlying muscle proteins, leading to a "cooked-fillet" appearance, and can also affect the epidermis and cause it to be partially removed during picking. This loss of the epidermis can cause skin discolouration during subsequent air chilling, compromising the product's perceived quality.

Turbo Scalding to Quickly Reduce the Feather Retention Force

The BAADER Turbo Scalder is specifically designed to protect quality during scalding. This scalder applies a unique and powerful downward water flow to ensure a fast immersion and an effective opening of the entire feather pack to facilitate water penetration to the follicles. Heat transfer is optimised by utilizing only water and no air, allowing for minimized scalding process time and temperature, which results in minimal damage to the epidermis.

Thanks to the highly effective heat transfer, the water temperature in the Turbo Scalder can be reduced by up to 10% compared to commercial air-in-water scalding processes. These scalding parameters not only protect the epidermis but also preserve yield. Direct yield loss is reduced because less fat and collagen will be dissolved in the water due to the temperature. Indirect yield loss is minimized as the proteins in the meat are not denatured during scalding, allowing them to retain their water-holding capacity during subsequent chilling.

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Full Control of the Scalding Process

Uniform water temperature throughout the scalder is achieved by circulating the water three times per minute. Sensors continuously monitor the temperature at different locations in the tank and provide alerts if it deviates from the set range.

The Turbo Scalder includes preset recipes that allow for a quick and precise selection of optimal scalding parameters for specific products, minimizing the risk of human error. It also features automatic pre-production water filling and water level control, along with a delayed filling option to prevent excessive overflow after production breaks due to the water level difference between an empty and full tank.

The scalder is controlled via a touch-screen HMI, allowing easy monitoring of machine status, temperatures, power consumption, water levels, and recipes. Remote access to the Turbo Scalder enables BAADER to quickly detect and resolve issues, maximizing process uptime.

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Protect Food Safety at Low Scalding Temperatures

Food safety is crucial during scalding, as each carcass introduces microorganisms into the scald tank. Pasteurization, a popular disinfection method, aims to eliminate pathogenic bacteria by applying heat for a set period. In the Turbo Scalder, pasteurization can be performed before production start-up to eliminate harmful bacteria or the pathogenic risk in the scalding water.

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Adjustable Picking to Protect the Skin

After scalding, the carcasses must enter the first picking machine promptly to avoid heat loss. In the initial machine, the carcasses are still covered by a thick layer of feathers, allowing the picking fingers to be slightly more aggressive. To protect the epidermis, the hardness of the rubber fingers in the picking machine should decrease progressively along the picking process. For the production of yellow birds, a shore 50/58 in the first picking phase and a shore 50 for the last part of the picking process is recommended.

Multiple adjustment features on the BAADER Tunnel Picker ensure the best possible picking performance while protecting the product's quality. Each picking row can be individually angled and picking banks can be height and separation adjusted so picking fingers follow the bird's shape.

The small picking discs in the Tunnel Picker enable more picking rows and precise targeting of hard-to-reach areas without causing damage to the product.

However, when protecting the epidermis, it is to be expected that some birds will have some feathers left after the last picker. These feathers can be removed by manual pinning.

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Monitor the Quality

When producing a high-quality product, continuous monitoring of quality issues is needed to protect the brand. BAADER offers an AI-powered vision system, the ClassifEYE, to constantly detect and classify all parts of each bird after chilling. With the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), vision technology can learn from previous inspections, continually improving its accuracy over time which is the case of ClassifEYE^®.

To achieve optimal bird distribution throughout the entire plant, a real-time classification system is indispensable. The ClassifEYE® system, leveraging the most advanced AI technology, is designed to adapt to the local production environment, always ensuring the highest detection quality. This sophisticated system computes macro-grades for all parts of the bird and integrates them into a weighted bird grade. This comprehensive grading is crucial for the precise distribution of birds to downstream processes, including whole bird packing, cut-up, deboning, retail, and Food Service.

Moreover, ClassifEYE® is capable of monitoring product appearance post-feather removal. It can alert operators about upstream processing irregularities that may affect quality, such as excessive skin tears, which could suggest overly aggressive picking. By providing real-time feedback and alerts, ClassifEYE® helps maintain product quality and optimize the entire processing line.

In the world of poultry meat production, precision and accuracy are paramount. One critical aspect that often is overlooked but plays a vital role in ensuring the right quality and highest yield of the process is the accurate weighing of whole chickens.

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Accurate Whole Bird Weighing

Precise weighing ensures that each chicken is measured with exactitude, guaranteeing uniformity in size and weight. This consistency is fundamental in delivering a product of unwavering quality. Be it for packaging in retail or food service, consumers expect uniform chicken portions, and accurate weighing is the linchpin in meeting these expectations.

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Accurate weighing is also closely linked to profitability. An exact weight for each bird facilitates their best-fit allocation to downstream processes based on their size. This, in turn, maximizes the yield and minimizes waste, contributing significantly to a more sustainable business.

Furthermore, processors who package whole birds to fixed weights must be particularly mindful of accurate weighing. Failure to do so can result in excessive “give-away,” where products are over-allocated, leading to unnecessary losses and reduced profitability.

The latest BAADER innovation to ensure accurate whole bird weighing is the TrueWeigher. This weighing device uses a unique static weighing principle to achieve a weighing result better than 0.25% at the highest line speeds. Together with ClassifEYE® and a Selective Buffer Transfer the processor gains production flexibility and best use of each bird.