Consumers are currently looking for any amount of relief at the grocery store. Even with inflation moderating, the price of meat, poultry, fish, and eggs has still seen a 0.5% increase in July from June. Shoppers have started changing their buying patterns to get more private label options and products which are less expensive than competing brands. To further cut back, many households are reducing their visits to restaurants, with some households cutting out foodservice entirely. This has created a demand for at-home convenience meals that are quick to prepare, inexpensive, and that promote wellness. This suggests fresh and frozen poultry ready meals will be popular items as the year continues. Food processors in search for poultry processing machinery will benefit from understanding how Marlen’s custom food processing equipment is the best fit for these poultry products.
Pump and Stuff Whole Muscle Poultry
The vacuum stuffing equipment food processors use for meat and poultry products plays a vital role in finished product quality. Marlen’s twin-piston vacuum stuffing and pumping systems have advantages for pumping and stuffing whole muscle, ground, and comminuted products. The twin-piston design results in superior air removal in meat and poultry products, which results in overall material savings by using less casing, netting, and bags to produce the same amount of product. Superior air removal also results in less entrapped oxygenated air in the product, which can extend shelf life and give a more desirable, firm product texture, as well as improved appearance. The large sleeve size (8 9/16” diameter by 14” long) achieves loads up to 24 pounds of product at a time, which results in large, whole muscle pieces with minimal cut points. Other stuffing and pumping systems, such as auger and vane style pumping designs, cannot maintain whole muscle quality. These advantages allow food processors to produce poultry products more efficiently than with other pumping and stuffing designs.
Slice and Dice Poultry Flexibly and Hygienically
As consumers demand a wider variety of products, food processors are responding by making their processes more flexible and hygienic. A common requirement in poultry plants is to be able to both 2D dice and 3D dice chicken breasts and thighs for various products. The Marlen DuraKut™ 6000 features an easy-to-use, icon-driven HMI, which makes it simple to switch between dice settings. Marlen offers a horizontal slicing attachment that processors can put on the front of the machine to enable 3D dicing at any time. As soon as you plug in the attachment, the HMI calls up the 3D functions for the horizontal slicer. When production is done, they roll the attachment away and continue with 2D dicing; when the horizontal slicer is unplugged, the HMI reverts to the 2D settings. The flexibility of the DuraKut™ makes it the “Swiss Army knife” of size reduction.
Marlen has also designed the DuraKut™ dicer for ease of disassembly for cleaning and maintenance. This allows for the elimination of as much bacteria harborage locations as possible on the machine. Each year, the food processing and packaging industry sees roughly 18 recalls of meat or poultry products due to product contamination, such as by Salmonella, Listeria, or E. coli. The increasing frequency and cost of recalls, coupled with FSMA, is putting pressure on processors to guarantee the safety of their food products. The DuraKut™ helps prevent these product recalls with its hygienic design being easy to clean and maintain.
Redistribute Labor with Marlen’s Surface Treatment and Continuous Thermal Solutions
Food processors can maximize product yields and create workflow efficiencies with Marlen’s surface treatment and continuous thermal solutions, allowing them to redistribute their labor workforce to other parts of the factory. The Marlen Afoheat™ Flame Grill is designed to develop surface color and effects on various proteins, such as poultry products, and to minimize yield loss, specifically with a savings of up to 50% product yield as compared to conventional grilling techniques. These yield savings are even more crucial when it comes to small products, such as convenience products, where weight losses are more important due to the small size of the products being processed.
The Marlen Spiral Oven offers precision with the amount and kind of heat energy used to cook food products. The Spiral Oven utilizes superheated vapor, which is a clear, colorless gas with more heat energy than traditional wet steam from a boiler, and is obtained by heating steam to temperatures higher than 100°C under normal pressure. When the steam is superheated in this way, it can transfer heat energy more efficiently and much more quickly as compared to convection cooking with dry air. This “super-charges” the cooking zone to allow for shorter cook times and with maximized product yields.
Fill Poultry Products with Precision
Marlen’s Filling Equipment maximizes profits by reducing labor requirements and by reducing product giveaway. Marlen’s fillers are known for automating tough applications that are often referred to as “hand fill only” products, such as fine, medium, or course shredded poultry products. This automated process is weight-accurate, and it consistently fills into the most common packaging formats, such as thermoform/fill/seal equipment and rotary pouch sealers (simplex and duplex), along with cans, plastic or glass jars, and pre-formed meat trays. This can allow poultry processors to make more accurately filled products and redistribute their labor force to other vital areas of the facility.
Marlen is Your Process Partner
Whether it’s pumping whole muscle poultry, developing color and other surface effects on your poultry products, cooking quickly and efficiently in a continuous oven, slicing and dicing poultry prior to packaging, or automatically filling shredded poultry proteins into containers, Marlen has the solution for your process. For over 65 years, Marlen has been trusted by leading food brands and assures value to its customers through the highest consistency, accuracy, and product integrity. Marlen is prepared to deliver the quality and performance expected of a true process partner with parts, sales, and service operations across the globe. So, if you are considering innovative solutions for your poultry products, it’s the company behind the process solution that makes the difference.
