Protein processing technologies are becoming more sophisticated, proficient and attractive to meat and poultry plant operators.

In addition to vision systems boosting food safety, processors are using vision systems for standard processing procedures such as monitoring label registration along with missed and faulty packaging to help with quality assurance.

Technology in the meat industry tends to be cyclic. Over a period of three to five years, that innovation disseminates through the meat industry and is adopted by the leading meat and poultry processors.

Average U.S. animal slaughtering and processing production during the 12 months through September was up 1.9 percent from one year ago.

Conveyors and beltings are key hotspots in the push by meat and poultry processors to eradicate pathogens in their plants.

Meat alternative, meat substitute, mock meat— whatever you want to call it, if imitation is the highest form of flattery, the burger is having its moment.

In 2016, FoodMaven was founded in Colorado Springs, Colo., to help eliminate the large amount of wasted food found throughout the supply chain, brought about by products deemed out of specification or over-produced.

Sometimes the advantages of using automated and robotic trimming and deboning equipment are not about the technology and equipment in and of itself, but the engineering of the whole line that can aid in speed and other efficiencies along with food and worker safety.

This spring, the Trump administration announced plans to shift food safety inspections in hog plants to plant employees, cutting as much as 40 percent of federal inspectors on slaughter lines in some plants.

The University of Wisconsin-River Falls Animal Welfare Lab's summary of the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service's (FSIS) humane handling regulatory activity from 2018 identified ineffective stunning as the most common cause of suspension.