Steps and Methods in the Poultry Processing Process

The term poultry refers to domestic fowl reared for their flesh, eggs or feathers and includes chicken, ducks, geese, turkey and pigeons. Of these, chicken and turkey are most commonly used for their meat. Poultry meat is a good source of protein and has a lipid content and low calorific value. It is palatable, tender and easily digestible.

Properties of poultry

High in protein, low in fat, excellent source of essential amio acids. Also a good source of –phosphorus, iron, copper, zinc, B vitamins (12 & 6).

Dark meat and skin are higher in fat than white.

Abattoir: It is a food factory where all the operations are dictated by the standards of hygine and animal welfare. It aims at producing wholesome meat for consumer in the most human way possible.

Carcass: The harvested dressed animal, where in the hide, hooves, head and internal organs are removed.

Lairage: Place where the animal are rested before slaughtering to preserve enough glycogen to be converted to lactic acid.

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Slaughtering: Slaughtering refers to killing of domestic livestock. The slaughter involves some initial cutting, opening the major body cavities to remove the entrails but usually leaving the carcass in one piece. Later, the carcass is usually butchered into smaller cuts. Slaughtering is done by two methods:

1. Traditional method
2. Modern method

Traditional method 1: Kosher – A jewish method - Only sheep, goat, cattle, deer and poultry slaughtered. - Meat should not contain any blood vessel. –Meat should not be preserved for more than 3 days.

Traditinal method 2: Halal – muslim method of slaughtering.

– Pork in prohibited. – No blood should be left in carcass.

Jhatka – practiced by sikhs – Here is completely removed in one stroke.

Some pre-slaughter factor affecting the slaughtering process

Environmental factors like temperature humidity, Improper resting time, feeding of the birds, stress during loading and unloading of birds, feeling of strangeness leads to the conditions called 1.DFD (Dark, film, Dry)

PSE (pale, soft, Exudation)

Modern method of slaughtetring:

1. Procurement: Done by judging the age of the bird by feeling the pliability of the posterior portion of breast by fingers.
2. Lairge: resting period of about 6 hours is provided to birds in order to preserve the glycogen residues.
3. Ante-mortem inspection: Birds are checkd for the obvious evedences of any disease, extreme emaciation, and lump formation on the body part.
4. Stunning generally done by 3 methods a) captive bolt/concussion/knocking b)Electrical stunning c) carbon dioxide mewthod.
5. Sticking it is done to facilitate bleeding of the birds and is done by 3 methods:

• Manually using knife
• Slaughtering cone
• Box method
• Bleeding: Done for 2 minutes for birds. About 60 % blood is lost on sticking.22-25% remains under viscera and 10% remains in carcass.
• Scalding it is the process of dipping the birds in hot water to facilitate the removal of hair follicles. It is done by two methods a) Dip scald b) spray scald.
• Picking: It is the feather removal from the skin of the birds. It can be done by

1. Hand picking
2. Use of knife with blunt edge
3. Mechanical method

1. Pinning: Removal of pin like feathers with a knife.
2. Singeing: Removal of filoplumes using flame for surface sterilization, clean, uniform and neat appearance.
3. Evisceration/cropping and venting: Removal of viscera, crop, neck and also the fecal matter that may be present in the lower intestine. After this carcass is immediately washed.
4. Post mortem inspection: The carcass is examined externally for sings of disease, bone abnormalities, wounds, tumors, liver and spleen is examined for consistency, texture and color changes.
5. Washing: Dressed carcass are washed again with clean spray of water preferably maintained at 10degree-15 degree C.
6. Chilling and Draining: Carcass is chilling tanks in order to cool to an internal temperature of 4 degree C for 30-35 minutes and then draining rack for 10 minutes to remove excess water.
7. Grading: Dressed carcass is then graded depending on many factors like conformation, degree of fleshing, bruises, cuts and other quality attributes.
8. Packaging carcass is then according to their grading shrink packaged under cool conditions.
9. Storage dressed chicken can be stored in a refrigerator at 2 degree C for 7 days and deep freezer at -18 degree C to -20 degree C for a period of 4-6 months.
10. Processing flowchart
11. Grading of meat: Grading is done for pricing segregation of products according to some grandes and inspection. There are two types of grades: 1. Quality grades (on the besis of pliability)- (USDA prime, USDA choice, USDA select, good, standard, commercial, utility, cutter, canner) Quantity/yield grades – Ranking “1-5” according to the amount of useable meat from the carcass in the decreasing order of yield.
12. Some chicken meat products chicken frankfurter chicken roll chicken meat balls chicken burgers. From the sides I hereby conclude that although country does not outreach a large number of non-vegetarians but then has a sufficient number to be fed and still the modern slaughtering techniques are yet to be adopted discussed in the slides. Also this will prevent many losses during processing and aid in the production of safe meat products in the country.