With its two high-speed lines, each able to handle up to 15,000 broilers per hour [250 bpm], the Baiada Hanwood plant in Griffith, New South Wales is now ideally set up to supply all sectors of the Australian chicken market. One of the two lines handles "light" birds up to 2.8 kg [6 lbs]; the other "heavy birds", which can be 4 kg [8.8 lbs] or more. A recent speed increase took the "light" line from 13,500 bph [225 bpm] and the "heavy" line from 12,000 bph [200 bpm] to 15,000 bph. Both lines are equipped throughout with the latest Marel technology.
Much of the primary processing equipment at Baiada's Hanwood site could already handle the new higher hourly throughput, examples being the two GP live bird handling systems, two CAS SmoothFlow controlled atmosphere stunning systems and Nuova automatic evisceration and giblet harvesting systems.
Delighted with results
Among the new items added were SmartWeighers in the killing and evisceration departments, LineLink re-hangers between killing and evisceration lines and the addition of DownFlow Plus air chill tunnels.
Paul Singh, COO at Baiada Poultry, is really pleased with the performance of all items. "We already had SmartWeighers in our whole carcass distribution lines and had been impressed by their accuracy and reliability. Our new SmartWeighers give us additional information on yields in our primary process, something we didn't have before. The LineLink transfer units perform perfectly. Adding an hour and a half air chill to our immersion chill process gives us more attractive, tastier products with a longer shelf life. Our customers really appreciate this."
Changing retail scene
Developments in Baiada's secondary processes have been the direct result of two changes in the Australian retail scene. The first is the move away from whole products to cut and filleted items. The second is a possible move towards fixed-weight packs currently under consideration by Australia's supermarket chains.
From whole product to cuts
Not so long ago, the market was largely a whole product one. This has now changed. Cuts and deboned items now predominate. Over recent years, Baiada has anticipated this trend and invested heavily in automatic cut-up systems. It now has three ACM-NT systems in operation, with a fourth one scheduled. It also has a dedicated ACM-NT system for producing nine-piece cuts for an international chain of quick-service restaurants.
Leading the way
Anticipating significant growth in the market for deboned thigh meat, two of the ACM-NT systems include the Marel Thigh Fillet System, able to debone up to 14,400 thighs per hour [240 pm] to hand butchering standard. Paul Singh continues, "We want to lead the way when, as we expect, demand for this product from retailers, the foodservice sector and from our own further processing plants really takes off. We are impressed with the consistency and the high yield of these filleting systems that turn out hourly while delivering to our high-quality standards."
Four FHF-XB systems debone front halves cut in the ACM-NT systems. Paul Singh comments, "Our front half deboners have made a big difference to the efficiency of our breast filleting operation. The yields we are getting are excellent. We can produce a wide variety of different breast meat products giving us and our customers a broad range and flexibility."
Prepared for fixed-weight packs
Baiada's Hanwood site has prepared itself well for fixed-weight packs. Some time ago, the plant invested in RoboBatchers and Marel MultiHead Weighers.
RoboBatcher weighs incoming breast fillets, placing them neatly onto retail trays in fixed-weight batches. The system is also suitable for legs.
The MultiHead Weigher can handle any chicken portion, whether bone-in or deboned. It collates product extremely accurately into fixed-weight batches, which it then deposits on trays, in bags or in cartons.
Paul Singh explains, "When our customers decide to move to fixed weight packs, we are ready. We know the Marel technology we have bought will give us precise pack weights."
Optimistic about the future
Paul Singh concludes, "We are very proud of what we have achieved at our Hanwood site and optimistic about the future. Covid-19 came with its challenges that we had to overcome when installing the new equipment but thanks to Marel we were able to work through those challenges seamlessly. Marel adapted quickly to the changed circumstances and came up with new ways of helping us, which we are sure will remain part of the way we work together in the future.
The plant is now truly world-class. We are confident that when this pandemic finally ends, we will be in the best possible position to take advantage of the imminent economic rebound."
We can produce a wide variety of different breast meat products giving us and our customers a broad range and flexibility.
Paul Singh
COO at Baiada Poultry
Baiada's new chilling building
Baiada is a privately owned business based in Pendle Hill, New South Wales, Australia. It owns two of Australia's leading poultry brands – Steggles – An iconic family brand and Lilydale free range which is a premium brand with premium products raised with higher welfare standards.
The company is vertically integrated with its own breeding farms, hatcheries, feedmills, growing farms, processing, further processing and protein recovery plants. Baiada supplies a wide variety of chicken and turkey primary and value-added products to its retail, quick service restaurants and food service customers across Australia.
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