Red meat water jet cutting and fat trimming

Summary

The base DSI water jet cutting system was modified for use on red meat products for fat trimming, and then trialled in-plant to achieve required performance metrics, of speed, accuracy of fat trimming, separation of cut products, general system reliability.

It also reviewed options of first ever application for bone in product application, through upgrading with the use of xrays to detect bones, eg, lamb racks/cutlets.

Objectives

The Key Project deliverables include:

• appropriate controlled changes to equipment to ensure clean cuts of meat are achieved without leaving residue
• optimisation of system pressure & algorithms to maximise yield and trimming to achieve these required specifications
• delivery of head count reductions and associated costs.

Key findings

• By automation of a previously manual process, the DSI machine has reduced labour costs and gives a highly controlled and accurate trim. As a result, there has been a significant increase in yield across all meat SKUs which run through the machine.
• The DSI delivers a consistently trimmed product which is more visually appealing for consumers.
• Customer satisfaction has increased, with a reduction in complaints received. Shelf life has been consistent with the manual trimming process across all products.
• This project had a financial payback of less than one year post installation, which has exceeded the original project objectives.
• The installation of the DSI has resulted in:
  • yield improvement through more accurate trimming ranging from 4.78% to 6.5%
  • line speed increase
  • a reduced headcount of per shift
  • significant reduction in trimming variability.

Benefits to industry

The advantages of waterjet cutting compared to hand trimming are:

• improved product quality for consumers - meat cuts will look more consistent and natural looking which is expected to drive increased sales estimated at 3%
• fat levels can be optimised
• potential yield improvement of up to 3% expected compared to manual trimming
• reduced manual handling during trimming, contributing to enhanced shelf life
• reduced labour requirement and potential 10% speed increase of production lines when trimming complex products
• upskill of labour to operate more sophisticated equipment;
• will enable introduction of fixed weight/price portions to generate incremental sales.

MLA action

Discussions are ongoing with Coles RRO and other retailers/processors regarding further adoption and improvements to the DSI machine.

Future research

Further research into the incorporation of additional sensors to the DSI Waterjet Cutting System may also further the benefits of the unit. Images from the vision system which scan each individual piece of meat are taken in greyscale.

Incorporating x-ray technology, such as DEXA, may allow the system to further analyse the product and differentiate between fat and bone. This could expand the range of products that can be run through the DSI to include Bone-In meat products which would allow expansion of the DSI technology to additional lines.