The University of Arkansas’s Agricultural Experiment Station is in the research and development stage of a hyperspectral camera that can help make the detection of woody breast myopathies faster and more accurate.
“Woody breast detection by hand can be labor intensive,” said Casey Owens, the Novus International Professor of Poultry Science at the experiment station. “If hyperspectral imaging can be used in a poultry processing plant, that labor force could be diverted to another area.”
How does the technology work?
Hyperspectral imaging captures the electromagnetic frequencies of objects in an image, which, in the case of poultry, can identify texture differences between normal breast meat and denser woody breast meat.
“What we’re trying to do is collect the spectral data, intensities that were reflected, and correlate them with texture properties. These are rated with a texture analyzer initially, and if we find a correlation between this spectral information and the texture properties later, we do not need a texture analyzer,” said food science graduate, Chaitanya Kumar Reddy Pallerla. “So, we can use this correlation and directly interpret the texture properties from the spectral properties.”
How can this technology help the poultry industry?
“The current evaluation procedure is time-consuming and needs a sample tested through cumbersome laboratory tests,” said Dongyi Wang, assistant professor of biological and agricultural engineering.
Non-invasive hyperspectral imaging would only take seconds and require less intervention from employees, freeing them up for other tasks.
According to Wang, woody breast results in an approximate loss of $200 million annually in the U.S., which this new technology could significantly reduce since, at this point, the camera can detect woody breast myopathies with 84% accuracy.
Chicken breasts with woody breast would not be wasted but would be sent to be processed into prepared products like, for example, chicken nuggets. Keeping chicken with woody breast defects out of the supply of chicken cuts can save money and increase customer satisfaction.
