This paper describes a transportable spectrophotometer system developed for real-time classification of poultry carcasses on-site at slaughter plants. The system measures the spectral reflectance of poultry carcasses in the visible/near-infrared regions (471 to 963.7 nm). An optimal neural network classifier for real-time classification of poultry carcasses into normal, septicemic, and cadaver classes with an average accuracy of 93% was obtained. When the classifier was used to classify the carcasses into two classes, normal and abnormal (septicemic and cadaver), the average accuracy was 97.4%. The percentages of the false positive and the false negative error rates were 2.4 and 2.9%, respectively. This paper also proposes implementing the system at the slaughter plants as a poultry carcass screening system (PCSS). Using two visible/NIR spectrophotometer systems, the PCSS tests both sides of the breast of each bird. With the PCSS, the inspection-passed-bird and inspection-rejected-bird error rates by the spectrophotometer systems would be minimal, and less than 5% of the incoming birds would require further inspection by human inspectors.
A transportable system equipped with an overhead shackle conveying line and a visible/near‐infrared (Vis/NIR) spectrophotometer system was assembled and used at a poultry slaughter plant. The reflectance spectra of each poultry carcass hung on the moving shackle was measured with a stationary fiber optic probe, which was set 2 to 5 cm away from the carcass, depending on the size. Reflectance spectra of wholesome and unwholesome poultry carcasses on the moving shackle, set at 60 or 90 birds/min, were measured, either under room light or in a dark environment. The scanning time for each carcass was 0.32 s. Most of the unwholesome poultry carcasses for this study were septicemic and air‐sacculitic. The average accuracy in classifying wholesome and unwholesome carcasses was above 94%. All the misclassified carcasses were air‐sacculitic. With a shackle speed of 90 birds/min, the highest average accuracy was obtained when the reflectance was measured in the dark (97.5%). The results showed that the accuracy of classification could be improved with the maintenance of a consistent lighting environment. All results indicated the Vis/NIR spectrophotometer system would be a highly accurate, robust tool for on‐line, real‐time classification of wholesome and unwholesome carcasses.
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