A SPECTROSCOPIC SYSTEM FOR HIGH-SPEED INSPECTION OF POULTRY CARCASSES

A visible/near-infrared spectroscopic system for high-speed on-line poultry carcass inspection was developed and demonstrated. The inspection system, which was an area scanning system designed to measure the interactance spectra of poultry carcasses in the visible to near-infrared regions, consisted of a fiber-optic probe, a spectrograph, a spectroscopic charge coupled device detector, a quartz tungsten halogen light source, an industrial computer, and in-house developed software modules. On-line trials of the visible/near-infrared chicken inspection system were conducted during a 5-day period in a poultry processing plant in Athens, Georgia. Spectra (431 to 943 nm) of 450 wholesome and 426 unwholesome chicken carcasses were measured. The instrument measured the spectra of veterinarian-selected carcasses on a processing line running at speeds of 140 and 180 birds/min. Results showed this visible/near-infrared system can be used to differentiate between wholesome and unwholesome poultry carcasses at high speeds. For the 140-bird/min line speed, the best model achieved classification accuracies of 95% for wholesome and 92% for unwholesome birds. For the 180-bird/min line speed, the best model achieved classification accuracies of 94% and 92% for wholesome and unwholesome birds, respectively. The system is ready to be implemented for operation on high-speed poultry processing lines.