How to turn every piece of chicken into profit

That’s because consumers want convenient options, preferring not to dissect a whole chicken themselves at home before cooking dinner. It’s therefore important that processing plants handle each chicken piece carefully, using a quality cut-up system that has the modular power to adapt to different market needs.

Marel’s ACM-NT system offers flexibility and can be tailored to specific requirements. Especially the new WingMaster and Alpine modules for wings and legs are fully adaptable to deliver the highest yield and profit.

Which chicken pieces are we talking about?

A chicken is usually cut into wings, legs and breasts, which are the most profitable pieces. Other parts, such as tail, back piece/spine, leaf fat, and keel bone, are possible byproducts.

Wings can be cut into 1, 2 or 3 pieces, as a whole wing, as a wing without wingtip, or as separated drumette, midwing and wingtip. The most valuable wing pieces are the drumette and midwing (first and second joint). Legs can be kept whole or split into thighs and drumsticks, whichever gives the most value in the market.

The market also determines whether the breast is cut into a breast cap or a front half. Unlike legs or wings, the breast part will always be deboned and is not sold as a retail end product. The downstream deboning system should be tailored to the breast product. Marel’s FHF FlexControl system is designed for front halves, while the Athena and AMF-i deboners are suitable for breast caps.

Why anatomic cuts?

Anatomic cutting follows the natural joints and muscle lines of the chicken, so there’s less risk of bone fragments. You don’t want bone pieces or splinters in your system. Some customers don’t want to see red bone marrow or even scratches on the ball joint of a cut, demanding a fully undamaged bone. To achieve that, the cut must be very precise. All this improves food safety and reduces customer complaints. This results in less rework at the SensorX bone inspection system downstream.

Other downstream processes, like the Thigh Fillet System, also work best with anatomic cuts. This system scrapes the meat from the bone. To get the highest yield, the joint ball must stay intact, since all muscles are connected to it.

Anatomic cutting is less important for fast food cuts, such as those used by KFC. In that case, the focus is on equal weight for all pieces, not on anatomic cuts. Some other markets value skin coverage more than a perfect anatomic cut, which can be another cut-up choice.

Q-Wing cuts

In the wing section of the cut-up system, there are many options. Delivering top-quality wing portions to demanding customers can be extremely important. In that case, there should be no lower-grade products mixed in. To ensure this, Marel offers the Q-Wing solution which is a smart setup that combines the IRIS vision system, PDS software, multiple ACM wing processing modules, and smoothly integrated conveyor logistics with packing stations and central rework stations­. Using quality data from the IRIS camera scans, Q-Wing automatically separates A-grade wings and wing pieces from B-grade ones.

The separated product flows offer a clear logistics advantage, since A-grade and B-grade wings need go different ways. With Q-Wing, manual quality checks are no longer needed. Just one operator is enough for a final inspection. The system works consistently and doesn’t get tired or influenced like human inspectors might.

Fabian Taferner of Hubers Landhendl says: “In the Q-Wing system, we handle two qualities. A good-looking wing is always A-grade quality. Additionally, there are wings with fractures or bruises, which are classified as B-grade quality.” The decision for A or B quality is made by the IRIS cameras in the Q-Wing system.

WingMaster

One of the prominent components of Q-Wing, which can also operate independently, is the WingMaster. For highest yield and quality of the midwing piece (aka wing flat, center piece, wingette), it is of utmost importance that its cut is anatomic and with highest performance – exactly what the WingMaster delivers. The WingMaster also offers adjustable skin coverage for ideal presentation of both mid-wing and drumette and it can handle wings with or without wing tips. Its automated cutting actions in the ACM line require less (skilled) labor for sorting and rework.

In situations where a left wing is broken and will be bypassed to go to the B-quality stream, a WingMaster in a Q-Wing setting can still cut the right midwing piece, or bypass this one as well. After the cutting action, WingMaster can selectively distribute A and B-quality midwings to the packing stations or the rework station.

Leg cutting

Getting the highest yield from chicken leg pieces requires precision. The saddle, which is the starting point, can be processed in different ways: into quarter legs using the Split Cutter, into separate thighs and drumsticks with the Drumstick Cutter, or into anatomic legs with the Alpine system.

With the varying chicken weights found in today’s markets, the leg cut-up system should be able to process a broad range of weights without requiring adjustments. Marel’s Alpine anatomic leg processor accepts water and air-chilled legs up to the super HD ‘big bird’ weight range, and even within a flock, it shows unparalleled, wide weight tolerances.

Anatomic Alpine

Built-in sensors detect unwanted back pieces. The integrated HMI screen provides monitoring functions, including tracking product losses. Alpine also uses a unique Hip Dislocation Wheel that actively controls the movement of the hip joint without putting pressure on the leg. Throughout the entire process, the legs remain securely in the shackles. All this results in accurate, high-yield anatomical leg cuts and better overall performance.

Hannes Langen, Project Manager at Emsland Frischgeflügel, says, “Alpine is the perfect solution for anatomically separating the leg from the hip, enabling a clean leg joint cut.”