Once the demand for processed poultry products is identified in the local or regional markets, a farmer may decide to expand into processing. The transition from farming to processing is extensive and requires careful planning and execution.
To begin, it is crucial to understand the preferences and buying behaviour of potential customers, whether they are retailers, restaurants, or end consumers. This market insight will guide the development of products that meet customer needs and drive sales.
Joining national or regional industry associations is an essential step. These organizations provide valuable resources, including access to industry reports, regulatory updates, and networking opportunities. Attending networking events hosted by these associations can also facilitate connections with industry experts and potential business partners.
BAADER is a specialist in advising on the processing process. With our long-standing commitment to the poultry industry, we are a qualified partner, offering comprehensive processing solutions that cater to the specific needs of your operation. Our expertise ensures that your transition from farm to processing is smooth, efficient, and compliant with industry standards.
The BAADER portfolio is extensive and designed to meet demand regardless of local requirements, processing speed, or automation level. We are committed to upholding the best processing practices for live bird handling, hygiene, and product quality, no matter the scale of your operation.
When considering the initial investment in a processing plant, it is crucial to choose a solution that fits your current needs while allowing for future expansion. An excellent way to start processing is by installing the BAADER Com pact Plant. This ‘plug and process’ solution is easy to install and includes features such as stunning that adheres to the highest animal welfare standards, effective scalding and plucking, and comfortable manual evisceration. The BAADER Compact Plant can handle 600 to 1600 broilers per hour, depending on chicken size.
The system offers a high degree of flexibility with adjustable bleeding time, scalding time, and line speed, ensuring that your processing can adapt to various requirements.
The Compact Plant benefits from the same quality components as our conventional high-speed processing solutions and is covered by the same comprehensive spare parts service. Conveyorized, in-line processing provides significant labour savings, increases efficiency, and enhances food safety. Additionally, the manual evisceration process is more manageable on an overhead conveyor, improving workers’ welfare and ergonomics.
With the BAADER Compact Plant, you get a robust and flexible solution that meets the highest standards of quality and efficiency, paving the way for a successful entry into poultry processing.
Higher line speeds require customized solutions to best fit your production requirements. The extensive BAADER portfolio is designed to meet these demands, allowing for the creation of tailored solutions that perfectly fit your specific needs. Our modular design enables continuous business growth, providing the flexibility to scale your operations whenever required.
When working with BAADER, you can be confident in receiving advice based on a thorough analysis of your farm characteristics, transportation facilities, and production requirements. Whether you are starting your very first processing plant or expanding your production, we provide comprehensive guidance on all aspects of poultry processing. This includes live bird handling systems, bleeding, scalding and picking times, and the appropriate levels of automation.
Our expert team ensures that every solution is tailored to meet your specific needs, optimizing efficiency and product quality. With BAADER, you have a trusted partner dedicated to supporting your growth and success in the poultry processing industry.
Transporting birds from the safe farming environment to the processing plant is a challenging task that impacts animal welfare, meat quality, and ultimately, plant profit ability. At BAADER, we understand these challenges and offer a range of live bird handling systems with varying degrees of automation. Our solutions cover every stage of the process, including the catching process, lairage and reception area, destacking and stacking, and wash ing and disinfection. This design flexibility allows you to choose the system that best fits your operational needs and ensures optimal animal welfare and product quality
Modularity is the key to designing a slaughtering line that delivers the highest quality chicken both now and in the future. At BAADER, we prioritize this modular approach when planning and designing slaughterhouses in collaboration with our customers. By understanding your current needs and future plans, we create solutions that not only address immediate requirements but also facilitate easy expansion.
This forward-thinking strategy ensures that your slaughtering line remains adaptable and scalable, allowing you to maintain superior product quality and operational efficiency as your business grows.
Evisceration is the critical process of opening the slaughtered bird and removing the viscera (internal organs and intestines). This can be done manually, semi-automatically, or fully automatically, and BAADER offers solutions for all these methods. From manual hand tools to simple semi-automatic devices to fully automated evisceration, cleaning, and washing lines, we provide the options to match your specific needs.
Manual processing requires a large number of workers on the line, while automatic evisceration represents the pinnacle of modern poultry processing, operating with minimal labour. The decision to choose manual or automated processes depends on factors such as line speed and access to skilled labour. BAADER’s comprehensive range of evisceration solutions ensures that you can select the most efficient and cost-effective method for your operation, whether you are just starting out or looking to upgrade your processing capabilities.
After meticulously processing each bird to ensure maximum quality and value, it is crucial to effectively minimize bacterial growth and extend product shelf-life. Achieving these objectives is essential for poultry pro cessors to deliver high-quality and safe food.
BAADER provides a range of chilling solutions, utilizing either water or air as the cooling element. These solu tions are designed to efficiently lower the core tempera ture of each bird to the desired level.
Both water and air chilling methods have their unique advantages and challenges. Water chilling is quick and increases yield but requires careful management to avoid cross-contamination and ensure optimal shelf-life. Inline air chilling is slower but enhances product tender ness and minimizes contamination risks, with controlled weight management through moisturizing. Each proces sor must choose the most suitable method to meet their specific market needs and quality standards.
Whether a processor aims to produce whole chickens or enhance the product’s value through portioning, skinning, or deboning, BAADER offers tailored solutions to meet these needs. BAADER provides an array of equipment for weighing, cutting, grading, and packing, enabling even small-scale processors to efficiently meet the demands of their local markets. Our tailored solutions and modular approach ensure that your processing plant can adapt and expand seamlessly, supporting your business as it grows and evolves.
Whether you are considering starting a poultry processing plant or looking to increase your capacity, we offer valuable advice on all process steps. Please feel free to reach out to us using the contact form. Our local experts will get back to you as soon as possible.
On January 26th, 2024, BAADER opened an office in Querétaro, Mexico, demonstrating our dedication to providing complete poultry processing solutions to customers in Mexico and beyond. Having a local presence improves communication and fosters stronger relationships with our Latin American customers.
Our journey across Latin America began decades ago, and our commitment to the region has only deepened with time. The expansion in Mexico underscores the increasing demand for efficient processing solutions and the necessity for enhanced sales support and service.
The trust and loyalty that poultry processors have consistently placed in BAADER solutions form the bedrock upon which we continue to build our business. As we embark on this new chapter of growth, we remain steadfast in our dedication to delivering excellence.
Meet Victor Garcia, Managing Director of BAADER Food Systems Mexico. With extensive experience in poultry processing, Victor understands market dynamics and local processing needs. His expertise helps him provide optimal layout suggestions, improve line efficiency, and integrate new technologies. Victor’s dedication ensures customers receive solutions that will enhance their operations.
To further facilitate close contact with our partners, we will participate in the FIGAP show from October 16 to 18. We invite you to visit the BAADER booth, number 1142, to discuss innovative solutions for the Mexican poultry processing industry.
From our Mexican office, we offer prompt local service support with a deep understanding of both local production practices and BAADER machinery. The service team is equipped to swiftly address any issues that may arise, ensuring minimal downtime for our customers. At the same time, our global experts stand ready to support our local BAADER team whenever necessary.
The new office in Querétaro features a stocked warehouse of essential spare parts, strategically positioned to ensure quickt response times and safeguard our customers’ uptime. The strategic location of the office facilitates efficient logistics and seamless support.
Furthermore, we have established a showroom at our premises in Querétaro, designed to showcase our latest technological innovations. This showroom serves as a dynamic space where customers and partners can experience firsthand the capabilities of our equipment and software solutions.
Visitors can explore the functionality, efficiency, and versatility of our products through presentations and live demonstrations, gaining valuable insights. This space is intended for showcasing new product launches and market-relevant solutions
For any questions or requirements, feel free to reach out to our newly established Mexico office. They are ready to assist with expert processing guidance.
BAADER Food Systems Mexico
P.º Centenario del Ejército Mexicano
Cond. E, Nave E1-095, Pq. Ind. Terra Park Centenario
76269 Querétaro, México
E-Mail: ba-mx@baader.com
Tel.+52 55 7924 4146
Feathers grow from follicles in the skin, which are complex tubular structures designed to keep the feathers securely in place. Within each follicle, the feather is attached to the papilla where it was formed and is further supported by connective tissue, muscles, and other structures. The force required to remove a feather, known as the ‘Feather Release Force’ (FRF), must be reduced to effectively pluck the birds. Several factors affect the FRF, including the bird's age, stress conditions, the onset of rigor mortis, stunning procedures, the feather's location, etc. However, the most critical factors are the scalding method, duration, and temperature.
To preserve the valued yellow pigmentation in chicken products, it is crucial to maintain the integrity of the outer skin layer, the epidermis, during the defeathering process. Striking the right balance between loosening the feathers in their follicles and maintaining product quality is essential. Excessive temperature or prolonged scalding can denature the underlying muscle proteins, leading to a "cooked-fillet" appearance, and can also affect the epidermis and cause it to be partially removed during picking. This loss of the epidermis can cause skin discolouration during subsequent air chilling, compromising the product's perceived quality.
The BAADER Turbo Scalder is specifically designed to protect quality during scalding. This scalder applies a unique and powerful downward water flow to ensure a fast immersion and an effective opening of the entire feather pack to facilitate water penetration to the follicles. Heat transfer is optimised by utilizing only water and no air, allowing for minimized scalding process time and temperature, which results in minimal damage to the epidermis.
Thanks to the highly effective heat transfer, the water temperature in the Turbo Scalder can be reduced by up to 10% compared to commercial air-in-water scalding processes. These scalding parameters not only protect the epidermis but also preserve yield. Direct yield loss is reduced because less fat and collagen will be dissolved in the water due to the temperature. Indirect yield loss is minimized as the proteins in the meat are not denatured during scalding, allowing them to retain their water-holding capacity during subsequent chilling.
Uniform water temperature throughout the scalder is achieved by circulating the water three times per minute. Sensors continuously monitor the temperature at different locations in the tank and provide alerts if it deviates from the set range.
The Turbo Scalder includes preset recipes that allow for a quick and precise selection of optimal scalding parameters for specific products, minimizing the risk of human error. It also features automatic pre-production water filling and water level control, along with a delayed filling option to prevent excessive overflow after production breaks due to the water level difference between an empty and full tank.
The scalder is controlled via a touch-screen HMI, allowing easy monitoring of machine status, temperatures, power consumption, water levels, and recipes. Remote access to the Turbo Scalder enables BAADER to quickly detect and resolve issues, maximizing process uptime.
Food safety is crucial during scalding, as each carcass introduces microorganisms into the scald tank. Pasteurization, a popular disinfection method, aims to eliminate pathogenic bacteria by applying heat for a set period. In the Turbo Scalder, pasteurization can be performed before production start-up to eliminate harmful bacteria or the pathogenic risk in the scalding water.
After scalding, the carcasses must enter the first picking machine promptly to avoid heat loss. In the initial machine, the carcasses are still covered by a thick layer of feathers, allowing the picking fingers to be slightly more aggressive. To protect the epidermis, the hardness of the rubber fingers in the picking machine should decrease progressively along the picking process. For the production of yellow birds, a shore 50/58 in the first picking phase and a shore 50 for the last part of the picking process is recommended.
Multiple adjustment features on the BAADER Tunnel Picker ensure the best possible picking performance while protecting the product's quality. Each picking row can be individually angled and picking banks can be height and separation adjusted so picking fingers follow the bird's shape.
The small picking discs in the Tunnel Picker enable more picking rows and precise targeting of hard-to-reach areas without causing damage to the product.
However, when protecting the epidermis, it is to be expected that some birds will have some feathers left after the last picker. These feathers can be removed by manual pinning.
When producing a high-quality product, continuous monitoring of quality issues is needed to protect the brand. BAADER offers an AI-powered vision system, the ClassifEYE, to constantly detect and classify all parts of each bird after chilling. With the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), vision technology can learn from previous inspections, continually improving its accuracy over time which is the case of ClassifEYE®.
To achieve optimal bird distribution throughout the entire plant, a real-time classification system is indispensable. The ClassifEYE® system, leveraging the most advanced AI technology, is designed to adapt to the local production environment, always ensuring the highest detection quality. This sophisticated system computes macro-grades for all parts of the bird and integrates them into a weighted bird grade. This comprehensive grading is crucial for the precise distribution of birds to downstream processes, including whole bird packing, cut-up, deboning, retail, and Food Service.
Moreover, ClassifEYE® is capable of monitoring product appearance post-feather removal. It can alert operators about upstream processing irregularities that may affect quality, such as excessive skin tears, which could suggest overly aggressive picking. By providing real-time feedback and alerts, ClassifEYE® helps maintain product quality and optimize the entire processing line.
In the world of poultry meat production, precision and accuracy are paramount. One critical aspect that often is overlooked but plays a vital role in ensuring the right quality and highest yield of the process is the accurate weighing of whole chickens.
Precise weighing ensures that each chicken is measured with exactitude, guaranteeing uniformity in size and weight. This consistency is fundamental in delivering a product of unwavering quality. Be it for packaging in retail or food service, consumers expect uniform chicken portions, and accurate weighing is the linchpin in meeting these expectations.
Accurate weighing is also closely linked to profitability. An exact weight for each bird facilitates their best-fit allocation to downstream processes based on their size. This, in turn, maximizes the yield and minimizes waste, contributing significantly to a more sustainable business.
Furthermore, processors who package whole birds to fixed weights must be particularly mindful of accurate weighing. Failure to do so can result in excessive “give-away,” where products are over-allocated, leading to unnecessary losses and reduced profitability.
The latest BAADER innovation to ensure accurate whole bird weighing is the TrueWeigher. This weighing device uses a unique static weighing principle to achieve a weighing result better than 0.25% at the highest line speeds. Together with ClassifEYE® and a Selective Buffer Transfer the processor gains production flexibility and best use of each bird.
If you have questions about the best production parameters for protecting the epidermis, reach out to the BAADER experts
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Obtain Perfect Yellow Chickens: Protect the Epidermis during Scalding and Picking
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