Rory Harrington has an article out for Food Production Daily online about a new technology that can scan poultry carcasses for contamination. The technology was developed by the U.S. Government and has “been successfully tested in a commercial plant.”According to the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Research Service (ARS), hyperspectral imaging systems have been improved to the point “so that it can detect small amounts of fecal contamination in poultry. Hyperspectral imaging is a technique that combines digital imaging with spectroscopy, creating individual wavelengths of light that pinpoint contaminants.”
ARS scientists worked at the Quality and Safety Assessment Research Unit in Athens, Georgia. The work was conducted in conjunction with Stork Food Systems, which is a manufacturer of poultry processing equipment. To test the equipment out, a prototype system was put in a commercial poultry plant so that its performance could be tested under commercial conditions.
“In the trial, carcasses were imaged after evisceration but before washing at a rate of 150 birds per minute. The system ran for several days without hardware or software problems and demonstrated its feasibility, said ARS scientist Bosoon Park.”
This team is now “collaborating” with Environmental Microbial and Food Safety Laboratory in Maryland “which has developed an on-line system to ‘differentiate systematically diseased poultry carcasses from wholesome ones.” The same technology is used in this method, only at different wavelengths.
The ARS is now focused with it industry partners to merge the two systems “onto a common platform that includes a line-scan hyperspectral imaging camera, lighting, and operating and detection software.” Merging the two systems could lower costs while improving the efficiency of disease and contaminate detection. The new prototype should be tested before the end of the year, according to the development team.
To read the Food Production Daily article click here.
Posted: 10/12/09
