Intact gastro-intestinal tract removal from pig carcasses in a novel Meat Factory Cell approach

Conventional automated slaughter lines for pigs are organised as disassembly lines with many specialised machines. High costs and capacities make them relevant only for large scale meat production. The ambition with the novel Meat Factory Cell (MFC) concept is to provide the meat industry with a robust and flexible automation platform that is also relevant for smaller scale production. The MFC process deviates radically from conventional processing of pig carcasses after singeing. In MFC, the limbs are removed first. Then the dorsal muscles along the spinal axis from tail to head are removed with the column and rind in one meat cut, followed by removal of the viscera. Finally, the cut ribs and belly are removed. Such approaches to automation in pig abattoirs and cutting plants are highly needed in smaller scale production, and they should produce meat and offal as hygienically as conventional factories. This case study reports the evisceration of 37 pigs in 9 trials performed in 2019. Several approaches were tested with a prototype carcass holding unit. Evisceration could be undertaken without the need to cut through the gastrointestinal tract from tongue to rectum, reducing the probability of accidental faecal contamination of pork carcasses from the gut content. The Meat Factory Cell procedure is an advance towards automated evisceration of pig carcasses which is both simple and hygienic. The traditional separation of internal organs into a pluck set and a set of stomach and bowels was more prone to leakages.