Poultry Products, Processing and Value Addition
Products and processing
Main products are eggs and chicken meat; by-products include manure, feathers, offal and hatchery waste. Egg quality depends on shell cleanliness and strength, albumen height (Haugh unit), yolk colour and absence of cracks. Meat processing includes ante-mortem inspection, bleeding, scalding at about 55-60°C, defeathering, evisceration, washing, chilling, packaging and cold storage. Keep the cold chain unbroken.
Value addition
Value-added products include egg powder, liquid egg, pickled or salted eggs, marinated chicken, sausages, nuggets, cut-up parts and ready-to-cook trays. Grade eggs by size and freshness; label products with date and storage instructions. Manure can be composted; feathers can be processed into meal.
Worked example. A 100 kg live broiler yields a 70 kg dressed carcass at 70% dressing percentage. If edible meat after deboning is 65% of the carcass, edible meat = 70 x 0.65 = 45.5 kg. The remaining 24.5 kg is bone, skin, fat and trim, which may be used in further processing or sold separately.
Traps. Do not scald at boiling temperature, which damages skin; do not let carcasses sit warm; do not sell cracked or dirty eggs as table eggs; and do not confuse dressing percentage with edible yield.