Fully automated poultry monitoring – chicken, duck, turkey

In the past years there has been a growing demand for automation in the food and especially meat industry. Vision systems can help reduce hazardous situations for the workers, increase productivity and yields and improve hygiene and traceability of food products. A small German company specialised in machine vision and optical quality control has developed a poultry checking system. This is a visual monitoring system that can detect defective feet and knees in poultry, with a throughput rate of up to 16,000 feet per hour. Also measurements of breast bumps and evaluation of changes in skin colour can be carried out. The system includes an automatic self-analysis, that will note if the camera vision is impaired, e.g. by dirt. The system can also recognize whether the feet of the poultry are evaluable, e.g. if the feet are twisted, they will not be included in the analysis. The benefits of the product include guaranteeing animal welfare and thus improved quality for the end product, flexible customisation to the specific conditions of a slaughter line and simple operation. The system thus also cuts costs and increases revenue. Partners from the food and meat industry are sought for commercial agreements with technical assistance. They would implement the technology with initial support from the German company.