The meat industry is a huge industry due to large livestock consumption such as cattle, pigs, poultry, sheep, and goats. Due to high demands, it has paved the way for modern ways of meat processing which mainly includes machines for slaughter and packaging.
The primary meat processing industry is an amalgamation of two types of activities. The primary activity concerns the life of the livestock. How they grow up, how they’re fed, and the amount of room they have, e.g. The secondary part is when the meat processing starts.
Livestock Slaughter Procedures
For the slaughter of the livestock, some procedures need to be followed. This includes
pre-slaughter handling, stunning, and finally slaughtering.
Pre-slaughter process
Pre-slaughter handling is the first stage of primary meat processing, you have to make sure that the livestock does not undergo stress, because it might have an unpleasant effect on the produced meat. To ensure this, the livestock is kept in cool conditions with proper ventilation and not mixed with different groups of animals, this way overcrowding is avoided. Furthermore, animals are held off consumption for 12 to 24 hours before slaughter to ensure all the blood is drained from the body and to ease the evisceration.
Focus on reducing the stress of the animals
The next step in the primary meat process is the stunning of animals. Stunning is done to reduce stress and give a humane end to the animals, it also ensures better meat quality. Stunning is done in three ways: electrical, mechanical, and via the use of carbon dioxide gas.
Modern technology to process the meat
Post stunning the animals are slaughtered, modern-day slaughtering of livestock includes the use of conveyor lines and machines for cutting. Cutting of the animals is done in a way to ensure maximum blood removal.
A thorough examination of the meat quality
Slaughtering is followed by meat inspection which is mandatory to ensure the quality
and correct labelling of the supply. Antemortem is a step under inspection which
identifies animals that are not fit for human consumption followed by sanitation,
labelling, residue monitoring which is done to ensure the harmful residues like toxins
are removed from natural resources.
Technology is also being leveraged in this step of the process. For example, Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be leveraged to expect pieces of meat and to look for signs of bad meat quality. The computer can then indicate that the meat needs to be checked. After such an indication, an employee will take a look at the meat and provide the final judgments. This results in a more efficient process.
Technological maturity
Technology has seen a steady increase in maturity when it comes to meat processing. Not only does it improve the process for the animals, but it also ensures limited waste is created. This becomes evident when looking at the technological advancements made by dgs-ps, a leader in the field. These advancements are better for all parties involved, as it increases revenue, creates a broader assortment, and requires fewer animals to be slaughtered. This is a milestone that should not be underestimated with the scale of the current day meat industry.
