Integrated meat processing and information handling method
AssigneeMarel HF
InventorsBjorn Thorvaldsson, Kristinn A. Kristinsson, Petur Gudjonsson
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present invention relates to a process and an application for handling information in relation to meat being conveyed through a number of processing stations. The information is used to trace the processing history of a piece of meat, including its origination. The ability to trace the processing history may be used e.g. in order to trace back sources of contamination and for verification of the status and quality, weight etc. of the meat. The information is furthermore useful for the workers processing the meat at the stations or useful for the control and management of the meat processing plant.
Claims46
An integrated meat processing and information handling method for processing a meat product, said method comprising:
- receiving a meat product at a receiving area;
- obtaining information related to the meat product and storing the information in a computer system;
- selecting at least one cutting rule for said meat product based on said information, wherein said at least one cutting rule is used for guidance in processing the meat product;
- selecting at least one processing station to process said meat product;
- providing said at least one processing station with said at least one cutting rule;
- transferring said meat product between said at least one processing station, while tracking its position;
- processing said meat product in terms of said at least one cutting rule into smaller meat products;
- and
- transferring said smaller meat products to a packing area, while tracking their position,
- wherein at the packing area each of said smaller meat products is provided with at least one information related to the initial meat product.
An integrated meat processing and information handling system for processing a meat product, said system comprising:
- means for obtaining information related to the meat product;
- storage means for electronically storing said information;
- computing means for processing the stored information;
- means for utilizing the stored information for selecting at least one cutting rule for guidance in processing the meat product;
- tracking means for tracking a position of said meat product;
- at least one processing station for processing the meat product in terms of said at least one cutting rule into smaller meat products;
- transporting means for transporting said meat product between at least one processing station;
- communicating means for communicating to the processing stations and the computing means;
- and
- means for transferring the processed meat product to a packing area where said processed meat product is packed and labelled with at least one of said information.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.