Apparatus and method for cutting open a slaughtered poultry body which is suspended by the legs and has already been cut free in the region of the cloaca to form a vent opening

A method for cutting open a slaughtered poultry body which is suspended by legs and has already been cut free in a region of a cloaca to form a vent opening, comprising the steps:

• holding and positioning a poultry body, which has been supplied to an apparatus for cutting open the poultry body, by a supporting apparatus;
• tensioning abdominal skin of the poultry body by a tensioning means of a tensioning device by increasing a distance between the abdominal skin and viscera located in an abdominal cavity of the poultry body;
• and
• making a longitudinal cut in the tensioned abdominal skin of the poultry body between the vent opening and a tip of a sternum of the poultry body by a separating knife of a separating device;
• wherein;
• the separating knife together with a knife carrier as the tensioning means are inserted jointly as a unit through the existing vent opening into the abdominal cavity, wherein the separating knife, during the insertion movement of the unit into the abdominal cavity, is located inside the knife carrier in a standby position in which it is completely covered by the knife carrier;
• the abdominal skin is tensioned by the unit in that the unit with the completely covered separating knife is moved upwards in order to increase a distance of the abdominal skin from the viscera;
• and
• the longitudinal cut is then made from the inside in the tensioned abdominal skin in order to cut open the poultry body between the vent opening and the tip of the sternum in that the separating knife is moved from the standby position into a cutting position, in which the separating knife protrudes at least partly from the knife carrier.