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Chicken
Processing Plant Geared Up for Research Business
By Sharon
Durham
February 12, 2004 A new, state-of-the-art pilot
facility allows researchers in the Agricultural Research Service's
Poultry Processing and Meat Quality
Research Unit to design research projects with protocols that cannot be
tested in inspected, commercial facilities. The new processing facility was
constructed at the Richard B. Russell Research Center in Athens, Ga., under the
watchful eyes of ARS food technologist Clyde E. Lyon and agricultural engineer
J. Andra Dickens. Both Dickens and Lyon recently retired from government
service.
Construction of the processing plant took about 18 months from conception to
completion, with about a year needed for construction modifications and
equipment installation. The equipment was obtained from Simmons Engineering and
Stork-Gamco Inc., and
a number of pieces were specially made. Because of limited space, the pilot
facility can only process batches of chickens rather than continuous
production, but part of the facility can be run at commercial speeds of up to
180 birds per minute. Since the plant's completion in September 2002, the
research group has conducted two complete processing projects, and numerous
other projects have been completed using one or more pieces of the new
equipment.
The facility was designed and constructed to allow the research group to
install prototype imaging equipment and technology to detect fecal
contamination on processed carcasses. As this technology is refined and made
ready for commercial testing, the pilot facility will allow the researchers to
conduct a good field test before going into the commercial arena. According to
Dickens, there can be many differences between research testing and pilot plant
testing, so being able to tweak the new technology in a pilot situation can
save time and money. Because the pilot plant can closely simulate commercial
processing conditions, the researchers can demonstrate to industry members that
the research can be commercially applicable, where appropriate.
Read more about this research in the
February issue of
Agricultural Research magazine.
ARS is the chief scientific research
agency of the U.S. Department of
Agriculture.
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