Poultry plant processing technologies save energy

Biofiltered live-receiving area exhaust, controlled-atmosphere stunning, and hot-air scalding are among new poultry slaughter processes used at Esbro’s plant.

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Esbro’s new poultry processing plant was the first in the world to operate an evisceration line at 225 birds per minute.
Esbro’s new poultry processing plant was the first in the world to operate an evisceration line at 225 birds per minute.

Joop Eskes, part-owner and general manager of Dutch poultry processor, Esbro B.V., wanted to continue to grow his business, but expanding operations at the company’s Doetinchem, Netherlands, location wasn’t an option. The old plant was located in town and Eskes said that the town was anxious to have him move. The municipality had wanted the company to locate the 70,000-broiler-per-day slaughter and cut-up facility in town back in 1985, but 10 years later concerns began to be expressed about the noise and odor coming from the facility. If Esbro was going to expand its business, it was going to have to move.

You can’t tell it is a poultry processing plant

Eskes decided to construct a new plant and equip it from the ground up with the latest poultry plant processing technologies. The new facility was designed to be neighbor friendly, even though it is located outside of town. With the live-receiving area located inside the plant, there aren’t any telltale signs that Esbro is a chicken plant, except for the plant’s sign. Eskes explained that he really wanted the facility to not look like a slaughter or meat plant from the outside.

Enclosing the live-receiving area at the plant keeps the live haul trucks out of site until after they are cleaned and keeps the 2- to 2.5-kilogram (4.4- to 5.5-pound) average live-weight broilers in a low-light, temperature-controlled environment until they are  processed. The air from live receiving is biofiltered prior to being exhausted from the plant. Wood chips are used as a substrate in the biofilter, and the system does work. While the plant was in full operation, I could not smell anything even with my nose inches away from the biofilter and the exhaust air blowing directly on me. The wood chips in the biofilter are supposed to last five years.

Eskes explained that there are five categories of industrial production in the Netherlands, with category one being the “cleanest” and five being the “dirtiest.” The area where the plant was built was zoned for category five, but he said his plant falls into category three because of the odor control they have been able to achieve.

Welfare-friendly poultry slaughter process

Eskes said that the decision was made to install a Stork multi-phase, controlled-atmosphere stunning system because of the animal welfare concerns expressed by some customers as well as to improve carcass quality and deboning yield. He said that, in his opinion, properly used electrical stunning can still produce high-quality carcasses, but that electrical stun-to-kill systems required in some countries degrade carcass quality.

In the Netherlands, birds that are dead on arrival at the plant are removed prior to the birds going to the stunner. The controlled-atmosphere stunning system has two phases: In the induction phase of the stunner, the level of oxygen and carbon dioxide is controlled and renders the birds unconscious; and in the completing phase, a higher carbon dioxide concentration makes the stun definite and irreversible.

After removal of the birds from the containers, the containers are conveyed to a washer where they are cleaned and then stacked automatically.

Hot air-scalder saves energy and water

One of the major accomplishments of the design of the new Esbro plant is that the facility used the same amount of energy and water to process 120,000 birds per day on one shift as was used to process 70,000 birds at the old plant. The hot-air scalder plays a role in the Esbro plant’s water and energy saving successes.

When asked why he was willing to install an as-yet unproven technology in his new plant, Ekses said, “We were building a complete new processing plant, so I wanted to have the best technology that there is. The technology was still a little bit experimental when it was installed, but when you go to the air scalder, the bacteria levels on the birds leaving the scalder are less than when leaving a water scalder.” These improved microbial results are not as evident after picking, but Eskes said one day the cross contamination that routinely occurs at the feather pickers of all poultry slaughter plants may be reduced.

Marel Stork’s AeroScalder uses high-humidity heated air, not steam, to transfer heat to the carcasses. The 127.4F (53C) heated air in the scalder has a relative humidity of 90 percent and is saturated with water vapor. When the air in the scalder comes in contact with the cooler body temperature of the broiler carcasses, the water vapor condenses on the carcasses transferring heat. On my visit, there was uniform feather removal on a flock with relatively high size variation.

Eskes said that air scalding has provided a marketing advantage, because Muslim customers like the fact that the birds are not immersed in a water scalder, which can become contaminated with blood. In some Islamic countries, chicken processed using air scalding is labeled as being dry plucked.

While pleased with the energy savings and the fact that the new plant uses only 1.5 gallons (5.8 liters) of water per bird, Eskes said that his staff is still trying to wring even more energy out of the process. “Now we are trying to take more heat out of our chilling equipment (on the roof of the plant) to lower our cost more,” he said.

13,500 birds per hour on one line

When Esbro’s new plant opened in April 2013, it was the first plant to operate an evisceration line at 13,500 birds per hour (225 birds per minute). The facility operates with two trimmer-inspectors on the 225-bird-per-minute line.

An inline scale system weighs birds, and the weights are transferred along with the birds from the evisceration line all the way to the cut-up line. The dwell time in the air-chiller is two hours, and water sprays are utilized to keep birds from losing more than 0.5 percent in yield. This is intended to minimize moisture loss while giving the carcasses an air-chilled look.

An online vision system is used to grade the birds, and three automated cut-up lines are utilized to provide maximum flexibility in meeting customer orders. Additional processing space was included in the plant to allow for an anticipated move into deboning and tray packing. As of April 2015, this step was to have been completed, and automated Stork filleting solutions as well as retail packing was installed. Esbro’s new plant has also ramped up production and now slaughters just over 200,000 head per day on to two processing shifts, five days per week, along with the addition of deboning and traypacking.

When asked what he would do differently if he could build the plant over again, Eskes said that maybe he would make some small changes, but he was happy with the plant. He particularly likes the facility’s horseshoe or “U” shape, because it allows him to be at any spot in the plant quickly and see all aspects of production from the observation windows in the offices.

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