CURRENT PUBLICATIONS
The current issue of PoultryTech is
online. The topic of this issue focuses on Automation Research.
ATRP's 2007 Annual
Report
PDF 18.0 Mb
ATRP's Program
Brochure
PDF 1.3 Mb
UPCOMING EVENTS
Poultry World
October 3 - 12, 2008
Georgia National Fairgrounds, Perry, GA
International Poultry Exposition
January 28 - 30, 2009
Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta, GA
SPECIAL INTEREST

Bettcher Industries, Inc., an innovative world leader
in the design and manu-facture of food processing equipment and cutting
tools, has made a donation of $125,000 toward the construction of
Phase II of the Georgia Tech Research Institute’s Food Processing
Technology Building.
Bettcher Industries is the first company to donate
to the $3 million fund-raising campaign that will add 10,000 square
feet of laboratory and office space devoted to human factors, food
safety, and bioprocessing research.
View the Food
Processing Technology Building brochure >>
Directions to the Food
Processing Technology Building >>
Agricultural technology program observes a 30-year climb to the top.
Georgia Tech's Research Horizons
ATRP IN THE NEWS
Even a hard-working robot needs a good bath at the end of the day.
That was the issue facing researchers at the Georgia Tech Research
Institute (GTRI) as they delved into one of the big challenges in food-processing
automation.
Robots have begun to be deployed in many areas of food production,
but their use for handling fresh meat has been hampered because such
machines would also have to withstand cleaning with high-pressure water
spray and corrosive sanitizing chemicals.
At GTRI’s Food Processing Technology Division, research engineer
Jonathan Holmes led a project to develop a robot that would pack fresh
meat into trays, but with a design and construction able to withstand
the harsh conditions created by routine washing in a way more consistent
with how other equipment is cleaned.
Georgia Tech Research Horizons Magazine
New technology is positioning an old injury-prevention program at
the cutting edge of the poultry industry.
Nearly 10 years ago, scientists from the Georgia Tech Research Institute
(GTRI) collaborated with Georgia Tech’s School of Applied Physiology
to create the Ergonomic Work Assessment System (EWAS) to track the
positioning and arm movements of workers as they deboned poultry. The
idea was to identify and then avoid the factors leading to repetitive-stress
injuries.
The improved EWAS, developed in cooperation with the poultry industry,
provides a more accurate and detailed assessment by taking advantage
of technology that wasn’t available in the ‘90s – namely
position-tracking technology typically used to create computer animation.
Georgia Tech Research Horizons Magazine
Manual RPM placement is not only risky for personnel, but it is also
expensive and time-consuming. A typical RPM placement operation includes
four vehicles and a six-person crew. All the vehicles must stop at
each marker location, so there is tremendous wear on the equipment
and increased fuel use.
The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) believed there was
a better way to do it and funded the Georgia Tech Research Institute
(GTRI) to develop a first-of-its-kind system capable of automatically
placing RPMs along the lane stripes while in motion.
Georgia Tech Research News
Determining the feasibility of using an optical waveguide sensor to
find the avian influenza on poultry farms before it spreads.
Georgia Tech Research News
Researchers are building a computer-vision system that identifies
plastic and other unwanted elements in finished food products.
Georgia Tech Research News
Two augmented reality systems improve communication between an automated
poultry inspection system and workers who trim birds on the processing
line.
Georgia Tech Research News
VIDEO FEATURES
Atlanta
Business Chronicle highlights Food Processing Technology Division. >>
Run Time: 3 min, 55 sec. - 6.6 Mb
Automated
Vision-Based Inspection and Control of Baking >>
Run Time: 2 min, 9 sec. - 8 Mb
Videos
require Apple's QuickTime plugin >>
|
ATRP IN THE NEWS
Food Processing Technology Division Receives Award for Publication
Excellence
The
Food Processing Technology Division's Agricultural Technology Research
Program received a 2008 APEX Award of Excellence in the Newsletters-Print
category for its PoultryTech Summer 2007 Environmental issue.
Sponsored by Communication Concepts, Inc., the APEX Awards for Publication
Excellence
is an annual international competition that recognizes excellence in
publications work by professional communicators in categories ranging
from newsletters and magazines to annual reports, brochures, and web
sites. APEX awards are based on excellence in graphic design, editorial
content, and the ability to achieve overall communications excellence.
Congratulations to Angela Colar, Editor-in-Chief; Steven Thomas, Graphic
Designer/Photographer; Lucy Johnson, Proofreader; and Craig Wyvill,
Editorial Advisor.
RESEARCH NEWS
AUTOMATION RESEARCH
Researchers
with Georgia Tech’s Food Processing Technology Division, with
funding from Georgia’s Traditional Industries Program for Food
Processing, have developed an innovative computer vision system for
on-line screening of individual meat and poultry portions for both
volume and visual quality.
“The requirements being placed on chicken and beef producers
to meet the needs of their customers in the further processed and case-ready
products areas are challenging to say the least,” comments Wayne
Daley, associate division chief of FPTD and project director. “As
industry continues to produce more of this product mix, systems such
as ours will serve to enhance plant efficiencies and reduce costs.”
Further
processed products are the mainstay of the poultry industry, with the
key player usually being deboned fillets. However, missed bones, particularly
the clavicle and fan, in these fillets continue to be of concern to
processors. Current screening techniques are labor-intensive and can
be expensive, not to mention, they are not as accurate as desired.
Georgia Tech researchers are developing a new approach for automatic
screening of bone on the cone line providing an opportunity not only
to assist in finding missed bones but also providing real-time monitoring
of product yield.
Researchers
are developing a sensor-guided, automated transfer system for moving
carcasses from an immersion chiller to a shackle line for second and
further processing. Currently performed by four to eight plant workers
per line, the task is labor-intensive. Automating the process will
not only move workers away from a mundane task but save the poultry
industry millions of dollars in related labor costs.
The system Georgia Tech researchers are developing, however, takes
a slightly different approach to automation.
By John Stewart, senior research engineer in Georgia Tech’s
Food Processing Technology Division
As the poultry industry continues to expand its line of value-added
product offerings, tracking and controlling processes to address ever
changing size variability is becoming more and more important. Minimizing
trim in portion cutting operations, optimizing thermal loads in cooking
and freezing operations, and ensuring shape and quality specifications
are met on each order are demands that call for increasingly sophisticated
screening tools. One of those tools is 3D vision technology.
By Randy Wynn, Industrial Sales Manager - Alabama Power
Energy costs seem to be on an endless rise. They are beginning to
represent a significant portion of the cost of production for the poultry
processor. The typical poultry facility purchases some form of petroleum
product to heat water for use in processing poultry. Then in the same
process the facility purchases electricity to remove heat from the
poultry being processed. The heat removed from the poultry is typically
discharged to the environment. The processor spends money to buy heat
and then spends money to reject heat to the environment. As a result
of utility cost increases, processors can no longer afford to continue
this vicious circle and remain competitive.
SAFETY RESEARCH
Georgia Tech was recently awarded a Susan Harwood Grant by the Occupational
Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to develop a comprehensive
safety training program for third-shift sanitation and maintenance
workers in the poultry processing industry.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor
Statistics (BLS), the rate at which injuries and illnesses occur among
poultry processing workers in the United States has reached its lowest
level ever and is below the rate found in food manufacturing in general
and not far below manufacturing as a whole.
Each year the U.S. poultry industry processes 20 billion pounds of
chicken. In one of the closing steps in first-processing, eviscerated
and defeathered carcasses are dropped into an immersion chiller, which
rapidly chills the carcasses to 40 °F or below. To further ensure
microbiological safety, processors also add chlorine to sanitize and
disinfect the chiller water. Because varying levels of chlorine can
affect product quality and taste as well as disinfection efficiency,
the chiller water must be constantly monitored.
By Gary Goettling
New technology is helping position an old injury-prevention research
tool developed for the poultry industry at the cutting edge of in situ
biomechanical monitoring.
Plastic liners and casings are used throughout the beef and poultry
industries to ensure ingredients remain fresh and that meat does not
come into contact with surfaces of cardboard or plastic containers
that may harbor pathogens. Sometimes, despite extensive precautions,
a part of a liner can tear off and become mixed in with a processed
food. Liner pieces are particularly difficult to detect because they
are often small, either transparent or nearly transparent, and coated
with food product or the ingredient that was initially packaged in
the container. Food processors have long sought a method to automatically
detect these materials in processed food.
By Al Yancy
As we move into the holiday season, one traditionally takes stock
of the year that was, and begins to look forward to the coming year
with wonder. It seems fitting then, to take a few moments to reflect
back on what 2007 meant for regulatory food safety, and to attempt
to predict where 2008 may take us.
In mid-November, the National Chicken Council (NCC) and National Turkey
Federation (NTF) signed a voluntary agreement with the Occupational
Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to improve safety in the workplace
through worker training, communication outreach, and information sharing.
Under terms of the agreement, companies in the chicken and turkey industries
will work together with OSHA to implement a new alliance on worker
safety, with particular emphasis on machinery hazards.
Next year, the Agricultural Technology Research Program (ATRP) turns
35. The program began in 1973 when a legislative conference committee
(responding to a request by the Georgia Poultry Federation) appropriated
$100,000 to be contracted to Georgia Tech through the Georgia Department
of Agriculture. A year later, the program was continued when the General
Assembly agreed to give the Georgia Department of Agriculture regular
line funding to continue the contract activity. In 1981, line funding
for the program was transferred to the Board of Regents for direct
allocation to Georgia Tech under the name “Agricultural Research
Program” (ARP). Eight years later, ARP officially became ATRP.
ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH
Growing concerns over global warming coupled with increasing crude
oil prices have sparked national interest in alternative fuel sources.
Many think that a biofuels boom-and-bust scenario is under way because
so many start-ups have entered the market and oil prices are volatile.
But any breakthrough in one of three areas will dramatically enhance
the viability of biofuels. Those areas are identifying feedstock materials
that do not compete with food processing needs, improving conversion
efficiencies, and finding better ways to get more energy out per pound
while using less energy. Researchers at Georgia Tech are focusing on
improving conversion efficiencies.
As the nation continues its debate over the role of biofuels in helping
it achieve greater energy independence, more attention is being given
to economic and environmental considerations. Recent spikes in biofuel
production have brought increased demand on agricultural production
which, in turn, has driven up food costs. Many are now questioning
whether crop-based fuels can cost-effectively increase energy independence.
This past spring, Caroline McDougald and a group of classmates in
the Georgia Tech School of Industrial and Systems Engineering spent
a week in the Food Processing Technology Division’s Environmental
Lab testing whether or not biodiesel could be made using algae as the
feedstock. As part of an Energy Technology and Policy course requirement,
McDougald and the others had to complete a research project on alternative
energy sources.
Danny Carpenter was just engaging in one of his favorite past times,
reading the latest issue of Transworld Snowboarding magazine,
when he ran across an article about a professional snowboarder who
drove across the country in a truck fueled by vegetable oil. Amazed
that such a feat was possible, Danny and his dad Rick spent the next
year reading anything and everything they could lay their hands on
to do with biodiesel production.
Working with poultry processors, Georgia Tech researchers are seeking
to help establish a strategy for easily measuring the cleanliness of
impervious surfaces in containment areas to allow facilities to more
readily establish compliance with storm water runoff fecal contamination
limits.
Facilities sampling under the special conditions associated with impaired
streams section of the GAR000000 permit (Part III.C) must submit the
Annual Report no later than December 31, 2007 (and annually thereafter).
All other facilities must submit the Annual Report no later than October
31, 2008 (and on an annual basis thereafter). If you are unsure or
have any questions, contact John Pierson at (404) 407-8839 or john.pierson@gtri.gatech.edu or
Mike Giles at (770) 532-0473 or mike@gafp.org.
Georgia Tech researchers have successfully developed a novel separation
technology and built a pilot-scale separation facility to recover calcium
carbonate from eggshells for commercial use. The project, funded by
Georgia’s Traditional Industries Program for Food Processing,
is in the final year of a multi-year effort focused on developing an
alternative to landfills that extracts value-added byproducts from
eggshell waste. More than 37 million pounds of eggshells are landfilled
each year in the state.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued new regulations that
require companies to assess the risk of their facilities to terroristic
attack, and, if appropriate, take steps to mitigate that risk.
There was a time when anyone in the poultry business would label food
safety and animal welfare as the top two priorities for the industry.
However, these days it is hard to have that same conversation without
someone mentioning the impact that environmental controls will have
in the near future.
Berkil Alexander, a Physics teacher at Cobb County’s Pebblebrook
High School, recently completed a seven-week GIFT Fellowship with Georgia
Tech’s Food Processing Technology Division (FPTD). Georgia Intern-Fellowships
for Teachers or GIFT is designed to enhance mathematics and science
experiences of Georgia teachers and their students. GIFT teachers are
involved in cutting edge scientific research, data analysis, curriculum
development, and real-world inquiry and problem solving. The program
is administered through Georgia Tech’s Center for Education Integrating
Science, Mathematics and Computing (CEISMC) |