Plucking machine
A plucking machine is a device used to remove the feathers from slaughtered poultry . The spring removal machines are equipped with rotating discs or rubber fingers that grasp and pluck the springs. They are available in various sizes, from table-top units to machines 3–4 m in length. There is also a plucking attachment with fingers for a conventional hand drill. A distinction is made between dry and wet plucking machines.
functionality
In the plucking machines there are drum sets with rubber fingers of different lengths, which rotate against each other at a high number of revolutions. Short, strong fingers grip the large feathers, the supple, up to 35 cm long rubber fingers grip the fine feathers. The scalded animals are held hanging by their feet against the rotating drums so that the fingers knock the feathers out of the bellows. By constantly turning the fingers reach all springs. If the animals were slaughtered while they were moulting , many feather follicles get stuck.
Dry ripping machine
In a centrifuge , suction is created so that the springs are pulled into a set of rotating plates and grasped and pulled away from the carcass. The tension on the feathers can be adjusted to achieve optimal plucking times for different bird species. The result of the dry-plucked bird is comparable to the result obtained by wet-plucking. The feathers are then passed through a suction unit into a collection bag for disposal. No special skills of the machine operator are required.
Wet plucking machine
Two plucking machines are used in series for complete de-feathering: The first plucking machine is an automatic spring plucking device with rubber fingers. The long fingers are on rotating discs. The plucked feathers and scraps of skin are removed with the help of water sprayers. This first machine plucks more than 70% of the feathers. The second plucking machine removes the remaining feathers. The plucked feathers are washed away by continuously flowing water into the collecting container or into the sewer system below.
After drying and temporary storage, the feathers go into feather meal production .
Health risks
The risk of contamination is particularly high during plucking, as the plucking fingers literally massage the germs into the damp, swollen poultry skin, especially Enterobacteriaceae . The pressure applied also promotes the escape of faeces from the cloaca, especially if the slaughter animals too short genüchtert were; and the plucking fingers distribute it all over the poultry. The risk of cross-contamination is increased if the plucking fingers are left for too long without being replaced, as the germs are in the cracks of the plucking fingers. Contact between animals also carries a risk of cross-contamination.
Degradation
If the scalding takes place at too low a temperature, plucking becomes more difficult, which results in bleeding, skin lesions or too many remains of feathers. Incorrect adjustment of the pluckers to the size of the animals for slaughter results in lesions and even fractures. Both of these lead to more rework (removal of skin lesions, rubbing) or downgrading to class B. Soiling and contamination from leaked intestinal contents is no longer noticeable after rinsing when leaving the plucking machine.
history
The first plucking machines were probably invented in the USA in the 19th century. In 1860 German newspapers reported:
"A clever Yankee has, as the Scientific American reports, invented a highly ingenious goose-plucking machine that neatly and stately plucks 45 geese and gander-pluckers in an hour, and also separates the large feathers from the small ones."
Using an American poultry plucking machine "Pecto-Plumer", for example, 200 pieces of smaller poultry could be plucked per hour.
Live pluck
Live plucking (feathers, including downy feathers) is forbidden by law in Germany, only the so-called scuffling during the moult is still allowed. In 2009 an animal welfare organization reported the violation of this law on a goose farm in Lower Saxony . The animal welfare organization Vier Pfoten used hidden cameras to record how workers at the large breeder pressed live geese against the rotating knives of a special machine in order to pluck the birds' breast and belly feathers. The devices are otherwise only used for dead geese at the slaughterhouse.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Method and device for preparing slaughtered poultry for plucking . June 3, 2002 ( google.com [accessed July 4, 2019]).
- ↑ a b c fattening and slaughtering poultry . In: poultry breeding library . Edition 13. E. Ulmer, 1961, p. 120 .
- ^ A b Isabel Guerrero-Legarreta: Handbook of poultry science and technology. Volume 1, Primary Processing . John Wiley, Hoboken, NJ 2010, ISBN 978-0-470-50445-1 , pp. 94-95 .
- ↑ a b c Volker Bergmann, Karsten Fehlhaber, Reinhard Fries: Practice of poultry meat inspection . Schlueter, Hannover 2001, ISBN 3-87706-591-0 , p. 41, 48, 184, 200-201 .
- ^ Bohemia: an entertainment journal . Haase, 1876 ( google.de [accessed July 4, 2019]).
- ↑ STANDING COMMITTEE OF THE EUROPEAN CONVENTION FOR THE PROTECTION OF ANIMALS IN AGRICULTURAL RISKING OF ANIMALS (T-AP) RECOMMENDATION WITH REGARD TO DOMESTIC GEESE (ANSER ANSER F. DOMESTICUS, ANSER CYGNOIDES F. DOMESTICUS). Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture, accessed on July 11, 2019 .
- ↑ Animal welfare for water fowl. In: German Bundestag - Drucksache 18/4251. March 4, 2015, accessed July 11, 2019 .
- ↑ Valuable feathers - tormented geese. Retrieved July 4, 2019 .