Metal detection for poultry processing
Poultry lines combine the two things that are hardest to reconcile: a wet, chilled product with real product effect, and throughput speeds that leave very little time for the reject to act.
Where the metal comes from
- Blade and cutting-disc fragments from automatic deboning and portioning equipment
- Shackle and hanger parts from the overhead line
- Machine wear parts — springs, bushings, fasteners from high-speed equipment
- Staples and clips from crates and packaging
- Needle fragments where injection or marination is used
Speed makes the reject the bottleneck, not the detection
On a fast poultry line the detector will register the metal in time. The question is whether the reject mechanism can act on the right item. On densely packed belts that sometimes means rejecting neighbouring items to be certain — a trade-off between product loss and safety that should be calculated before the system is chosen.
Poultry also carries meaningful product effect: chilled, wet, sometimes brined. Combined with frequent product changes through the day, that makes well-established product programmes more important here than almost anywhere else.
Not sure what can be detected in your specific product? Send us a sample. You get a written test report with false reject rate and probability of detection — free and normally within a week.
What we typically supply
Packing lines
Complete unit with conveyor and fast reject after packing.
Deboning and portioning
Detector head in the existing conveyor, built for daily washdown.
Marinade and brine
Pipeline detector in the injection or marinade circuit.
Product changes are the practical risk
A poultry plant may run breast fillet, thigh meat, wings and marinated products through the same detector in one shift. Each behaves differently in the field. If they all share one product programme, the programme has to be set for the worst case — which means every other product is being inspected at lower sensitivity than it could be.
Establish a programme per product. We do it during commissioning, and we can re-establish them as part of a calibration visit.