Technological advances in the meat industry

Press, 5 March 1982, Page 18

Technological advances in the meat industry

By

MR P. D. BLOMFIELD,

executive director, N.Z.

Freezing Companies’ Association

During the peak of the meat processing season 34,000 people are employed throughout the industry but in spite of the labour intensive nature of the industry, there is considerable continuing technological development.

In recent years there have been quite dramatic changes in many areas.

Starting with the sheepyards we now find in many plants they are elevated, between two and three metres above ground level. All stockyards have washing facilities, some more novel than others but nonetheless practical.

For example, at two plants sheep are driven in small mobs of about 70 into a pen which is then hydraulically submerged into a tank. The animals swim around for about one minute and the pen is raised again to floor level and the mob moved onto a permanent pen. At other plants sheep are driven up a race onto a moving conveyor belt which slopes down into a swimthrough race of water about 25 metres long. At the other end the animal swims onto a moving conveyor which carries it back up to the level of the permanent race.

At one of the newest plants the stockyards have been designed to minimise animal stress, while at the same time ensuring ease of movement. All the pens and races have solid sides and no dogs are used, having been replaced by trained pet sheep which act as leaders. The end result is an environment more restful for the livestock and quieter to work in.

In the area of skinning and dressing the carcase, new layout designs have incorporated aspects such as varying level platforms to make the job easier. This is a particular feature in processing beef carcases which of course are physically large and where mechanical aids are used extensively. Many of the working platforms are pneumatically controlled by the operator and can'be raised or lowered by foot control. Tools such as saws are pneumatically driven and are counter-bal-anced to a fine degree to facilitate ease of operation. New designs in knives, incorporating high speed circular blades, pneumatically driven, have been introduced for certain tasks in the skinning process.

At another ndw plant the layout of the processing area has incorporated a division in the chain. At a certain point the chain divides into a loop thus creating two working areas, but effectively reducing the working, speed by half of the traditional straight line chain.

The benefits of this are twofold, firstly improved working conditions for the process worker and, secondly, creating room to mechanise certain processing

procedures. The two loops join again to form a single chain for evisceration inspection. weighing and grading. Extensive use of microtechnology is evident throughout the industry. Automatic weighing and grading is a feature in a number of plants. This computerised method of recording has provided companies with considerable data which ensures rapid processing of information, for example problems in dressing of the carcases, disease, data required for calculating payments to the farmer, stock in store and such like.

As well as being an essential management and marketing tool, the computer stores information that is also useful to research organisations outside the industry for identifying certain animal diseases, frequency and geographic incidence. The combination of computer and micro switching has eliminated much of the manhandling of carcases. This means that movement of carcases from processing to cooling areas and by automatic time control onto freezer is now an automated procedure in several plants. In fact not only are carcases and cartons automatically loaded into the freezers but the reverse procedure also applies. Naturally, refrigeration temmperature control is also fully automated and computer controlled.

The product stays in the freezer only for the length of time necessary to reduce the temperature to the mandatory minus 12 deg C. This will take anywhere from 15 to 40 hours depending on the type of freezer. After freezing, the carcases move to the bagging area to be wrapped, which is still a manual task, stacked into pallets and shifted by forklift into coldstores and there they remain until loadout. But technological development in the freezing industry has not been concentrated entirely on the primary area of stock handling, slaughtering. processing and freezing at the exclusion of all other areas. Advances have been made in recent years in rendering systems which have not only improved the quality of products like tallow but enabled a more efficient recovery and utilisation of otherwise low-value waste. The disposal of effluent from industry has become a sensitive issue. But the meat industry was taking steps to improve the handling of effluent long before society became as environmentally conscious as it is now.

In-depth research by the Meat Industry Research Institute at Hamilton has led to

the development of improved methods of effluent disposal. The combination of this research knowledge and individual companies’ commitment to environment protection have resulted in the freezing industry setting an example to the'rest of New Zealand in attitudes to industrial waste disposal. Automated freezing systems have already been referred to. A recent innovation developed here by the Meat Research Institute is accelerated conditioning by electrical stimulation.

This is a system of tenderising the carcase in minutes, thus avoiding the toughness often associated with meat that has been frozen before it has had time to tenderise naturally. With the need to always keep quality .and customer acceptability in mind, this development has been beneficial because it has avoided the necessity for extensive conditioning rooms sufficient to hold a vast quantity of product slaughtered daily at each plant. Thus the industry has saved capital expenditure while at the same time maintaining quality. Another project well on the way towards commercial acceptability is shrink-wrap-ping of carcases. The stockinette bag so long a traditional cover for New Zealand lamb and mutton has, for all its handling convenience several short-comings. It does not protect the carcase from dehydration which can represent as much as a 4 per cent weight loss if a carcase is frozen for up to three months, nor does it provide a satisfactory hygiene cover. Shrink-wrapping in a polythene film, would provide a protective skin which would eliminate weight loss, be more hygenic and retain the case bloom - thus enhancing the visual appearance. The process, which is about to be introduced, will be automated. A major development project is mechanical dressing. No other part of the process is more labour intensive than the slaughtering, pelting, evisceration and presentation of the carcase for inspection. With labour costs amounting to 60 per cent of processing charges, freezing companies have been searching for a way to reduce the impact of escalating wages on the charges which the farmer has to pay.

The industry, after many years of research and development, is on the threshold of introducing into the processing system technology that will certainly be revolutionary.

A machine has been developed that removes the pelt

from a sheep carcase more hygenically and efficiently than can be done bv hand.

Since October 1981 the first of these machines to be built on commercial scale has been tested in a plant environment at Waitaki N.Z. Refrigerating - Stock plant in Nelson.

The trials are proving very satisfactory with the machine achieving excellent results at normal tally speed (about 8 carcases per minute). Although there is still some fine tuning to be done by the project team the future for the machine appears very encouraging.

Because of the specific nature of animal processing, numerous systems and technologies which are designed for the meat export processing industry have little application in other industries.

The scenario is even more specific for New Zealand because of the huge volume of sheep processed. Beef being a much more universal commodity has meant other countries — in particular the U.S.A, and Australia — have developed systems and equipment which other countries, including New Zealand, have adopted for their own use.

However, in the processing of sheep for meat. New Zealand has become an authority and clearly a world leader in the development of technology and handling systems.

With the New Zealand economy so dependent on meat exports, the meat processing industry — motivated by the necessity to provide an efficient service to the farming industry and a satisfactory return to shareholders — has continued to strive for improved systems.

That the industry has succeeded in this, despite the enormous drain on capital resources in upgrading plants to meet E.E.C. and U.S.D.A. hygiene standards, is a reflection on its resourcefulness.