Process optimization with connected ZEISS Spectrometers
The global demand for meat and meat products is growing and sale of meat is built on a high degree of confidence on part of the customer. Therefore, it is essential for the product production to be of the highest quality standards. Meat is a very complex raw material where small changes in environmental or nutrition impacts (e.g. animal nutrition) can lead to large variation in the final quality. It is required by law to determine the amount of water, protein and fat in every type of sausage. Continuous analysis of fresh meat and other ingredients are necessary in order to meet these legal requirements and to ensure a constant batch-to-batch quality. This does not only apply to human consumption: almost one-half of the weight of any animal is mostly transformed by the processing industry into highly nutritional ingredients for animal feed production.
Focus on fat
Fat is one of the most important parameters to control during meat processing. The industry has always struggled with deviations in fat content in raw material and finished products due to natural variations in the meat composition. Fluctuating fat content in the supplied meat, for example, can be a large problem for a sausage producer if he is not aware of it. Standardization of products more closely is desired goal and this, in turn, requires standardized production processes.
NIR technology for the whole meat production process
By understanding the needs of the industry, ZEISS developed NIR systems that help to meet the challenge of producing high quality meat and meat products with the right balance of ingredients. NIR enables rapid, simple and simultaneous assessment at the slaughterhouse or at the intake. NIR technology provides the analysis of raw meat (frozen or non-frozen) at-line and in-line with measuring times in the millisecond range. It can also control the quality control of the finished meat products at the packaging area. Integrated into modern equipment control and data management systems, the instruments are able to withstand the extreme demands of the production process and the highly corrosive effects caused by cleaning processes.