Organisations/Georgia Tech Research Institute

From Poultry Hub

Since 1973, the Georgia Tech Agricultural Technology Research Program (ATRP) has provided innovative engineering research and development for the poultry industry in particular and the food-processing industry at large. The program's staff has studied the challenges facing this important industrial sector in Georgia, the nation, and abroad, developing a number of innovative technologies for improving processing efficiency and effectiveness. The program's outreach activities focus on issues and challenges that affect the industry today...Read More

According to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the rate at which injuries and illnesses occur among poultry processing workers in the United States has reached its lowest level ever and is below the rate found in food manufacturing in general and not far below manufacturing as a whole...Read More

Prototype Sensor Under Development to Automatically Detect Chlorine Levels in Poultry Chiller Water

Each year the U.S. poultry industry processes 20 billion pounds of chicken. In one of the closing steps in first-processing, eviscerated and defeathered carcasses are dropped into an immersion chiller, which rapidly chills the carcasses to 40 °F or below. To further ensure microbiological safety, processors also add chlorine to sanitize and disinfect the chiller water. Because varying levels of chlorine can affect product quality and taste as well as disinfection efficiency, the chiller water must be constantly monitored...Read More

Repetitive Stress: Improved EWAS Takes Aim at Worker Injuries

New technology is helping position an old injury-prevention research tool developed for the poultry industry at the cutting edge of in situ biomechanical monitoring... Read More

Vision-Based Screening System Detects Liner Material in Processed Foods

Plastic liners and casings are used throughout the beef and poultry industries to ensure ingredients remain fresh and that meat does not come into contact with surfaces of cardboard or plastic containers that may harbor pathogens. Sometimes, despite extensive precautions, a part of a liner can tear off and become mixed in with a processed food. Liner pieces are particularly difficult to detect because they are often small, either transparent or nearly transparent, and coated with food product or the ingredient that was initially packaged in the container. Food processors have long sought a method to automatically detect these materials in processed food... Read More

Poultry Industry and OSHA Sign Workplace Safety Agreement

In mid-November, the National Chicken Council (NCC) and National Turkey Federation (NTF) signed a voluntary agreement with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to improve safety in the workplace through worker training, communication outreach, and information sharing. Under terms of the agreement, companies in the chicken and turkey industries will work together with OSHA to implement a new alliance on worker safety, with particular emphasis on machinery hazards. Read More

Environmental Research

Defining Strategies to Control Storm Water Runoff from Poultry Processing Facilities

Working with poultry processors, Georgia Tech researchers are seeking to help establish a strategy for easily measuring the cleanliness of impervious surfaces in containment areas to allow facilities to more readily establish compliance with storm water runoff fecal contamination limits... Read More

Researchers Develop Process to Recover Eggshell Waste for Alternative Uses

Georgia Tech researchers have successfully developed a novel separation technology and built a pilot-scale separation facility to recover calcium carbonate from eggshells for commercial use. The project, funded by Georgia’s Traditional Industries Program for Food Processing, is in the final year of a multi-year effort focused on developing an alternative to landfills that extracts value-added byproducts from eggshell waste. More than 37 million pounds of eggshells are land-filled each year in the state... Read More

A Look at the Department of Homeland Security’s Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standard and Its Impact on Poultry Processors and Growers

John Starkey, vice president of Environmental Programs for the U.S. Poultry & Egg Association

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued new regulations that require companies to assess the risk of their facilities to terrorist attacks, and, if appropriate, take steps to mitigate that risk... Read More

Changing Environmental and Energy Climate Creates New Opportunities for Electric Boilers and Water Heaters

There was a time when anyone in the poultry business would label food safety and animal welfare as the top two priorities for the industry. However, these days it is hard to have that same conversation without someone mentioning the impact that environmental controls will have in the near future...Read More

Automation Research

Building “Smart” Deboning Systems

In an effort to address the poultry industry’s challenge to automate the deboning process, Georgia Tech researchers are developing a “smart” deboning system. The system uses computer vision and other sensing technologies to recognize and react to size and shape differences of a chicken carcass in order to perform precision cuts that optimize yield (the amount of meat removed from the bone) while reducing the risk of bone fragments in finished product...Read More

Seeing the Unseen: Infrared computer vision system could help make meat products safer, tastier, and less costly to produce

By Jane M. Sanders

An initial GTRI study funded by Georgia’s Food Processing Advisory Council (FoodPAC) focused on using IR technology to measure the mean surface temperature and then estimate the core temperature of meat products as they come out of industrial ovens. GTRI senior research engineer John Stewart led that project, which included a field study of GTRI’s IR computer vision system at a Gold Kist plant in Boaz, Ala...Read More

Emerging Labor-Saving Technology Trends for Poultry Processing Operations

J. Craig Wyvill, chief of the Food Processing Technology Division of the Georgia Tech Research Institute and an expert in poultry processing and production trends, discusses emerging technology trends that will help the poultry industry further reduce labor costs and increase processing efficiency...Read More

Researchers Make Progress in Design of Non-Robotic System for Chiller Rehang

Over the past year, researchers with Georgia Tech’s Agricultural Technology Research Program (ATRP) have made significant strides in their quest to develop a non-robotic system for rehanging birds exiting an immersion chiller onto a transfer shackle line. In so doing, they are helping to automate a process that is limiting processing efficiencies in many poultry processing plants...Read More

Electrode Boiler Integral to Mar-Jac’s Feed Mill Efficiency

Efficiency in the poultry business is paramount. If the production process is not improved to operate efficiently, costs will rise and ultimately, consumers will be asked to pay more at the supermarket – a risk Mar-Jac is not willing to take. The electrode boiler is 99 percent efficient and costs approximately $5,000 a year to maintain. Additionally, its footprint is only 200 square feet, thus freeing up space in the mill. Read More

Publications

PoultryTech-Automation Issue: Vol. 20, No. 1, 2008

PoultryTech-Environmental Issue: Vol. 20, No. 2, 2008

Source

All information related to The Georgia Institute of Technology has been sourced kindly from: PoultryTech, a publication of the Agricultural Technology Research Program of the Georgia Tech Research Institute, a program conducted in cooperation with the Georgia Poultry Federation with funding from the Georgia Legislature.

Organisations/Georgia Tech Research Institute

From Poultry Hub

Contents

Safety Research

Georgia Tech Receives OSHA Grant to Develop Safety Training Program for Third-Shift Poultry Processing Workers

Poultry Industry Efforts Help Deliver Best Safety Record Ever