The recent test was done at speeds of 140 to 180 birds per minute (bpm), double previous tested speeds--on the fastest line, just after the carcasses are defeathered.

The system has been tested at various commercial processing plants during the past decade.

For the latest test, Yud-Ren Chen, an agricultural engineer at the ARS Instrumentation and Sensing Laboratory in Beltsville, Md., and colleagues took their inspection equipment to a commercial processing facility. The test was done in cooperation with Stork-Gamco, Inc., of Gainesville, Ga., one of the world's largest chicken-processing plant equipment manufacturers. The Automatic Poultry Inspection System had an accuracy rate of 92 to 95 percent, which was verified by a USDA veterinary medical officer.

ARS has a cooperative research and development agreement with Stork-Gamco to commercialize Chen's system and move it into use among the nation's 300-plus poultry processing plants. The system quickly diagnoses all physical or nonmicrobial, biological conditions that cause an inspector to remove a chicken from the processing line.

In Chen's system, when a chicken carcass--on a hook dangling from a moving chain--passes through a light beam, the interruption triggers a scan with a light probe from about an inch away.

The reflected light is analyzed by a computer using ARS-developed "Automated Poultry Inspector" software to identify variations in external skin color and texture and tissue composition, which are clues to problems.

A second system will be tested in the near future. It uses a digital spectral camera to photograph, with a single click, each chicken at three specially selected light wavelengths

Source: USDA Agricultural Research Service - 15th October 2003