Chicken chickens typically take seven weeks to reach commercial market weight. Once they reach the appropriate size and weight, workers trained in humane care arrive at the farm and hand-catch each chicken. During this process, the chickens are moved into cages or modular boxes designed for transport to processing plants, designed to ensure the chickens cannot harm themselves or other chickens and that air can circulate.
The rest of the slaughtering and meat processing is mainly divided into 10 steps:
Step 1: Arrive at the processing plant
Step 2: Be Amazing
Once the poultry arrive at the processing plant, workers trained in humane handling carefully hang them on moving lines. Within seconds, the chicken will be calmed by the "friction bar", which will bring a comfortable feeling to the chicken's breast. This, combined with low light, can keep poultry calm.
In modern poultry processing plants, every effort is made so that chicken can be processed quickly and painlessly. First, before slaughter, they are rendered unconscious and unable to feel pain.
In the United States, the main method of stunning broiler chickens before slaughter is "electrical stunning." This is the primary method of rendering a bird unconscious. There are a limited number of facilities using broiler controlled atmosphere stunning (CAS) systems in the United States. These systems use carbon dioxide to render birds unconscious. Another CAS system uses reduced atmospheric pressure to stun birds.
When functioning properly, both systems are equally humane, as both require monitoring, appropriate adjustments, and management to ensure they meet humane standards of care.
Step 4: Eviscerate
After slaughter, the birds enter the process of removing their feathers. This is necessary in order to prepare the poultry for processing. Start by placing the chicken in a hot water bath to help loosen the feathers. Feather removal is performed by a machine called a "picker," which consists of hundreds of small rubber "fingers" that rotate to remove feathers.
After the feathers are removed, the birds are sent to the "gutting" line, where the internal organs and feet, also known as "claws," are removed.
Every part of the bird is utilized - for example, chicken feet are considered a delicacy in Asian countries, and the feathers are refined and used as protein in some animal feeds.
Step 5: Clean and Chill
After the organs are removed, the body is cleaned before examination. As an additional measure to further reduce bacteria, each chicken can be rinsed with water and organically. Any substances used for this purpose are strictly regulated by the USDA and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and have been approved for use in food production.
Research confirms that the use of these rinses has no impact on human health; on the contrary, their use does improve the health of the finished product. Prior to this process, which involves freezing the birds to lower temperatures to maintain freshness and cleanliness, company quality assurance and food safety staff double-check their quality, food safety and sanitation. They follow strict regulatory and company standards for every chicken that enters the freezing process.
Step 6: United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Inspection
During the evisceration process, each chicken is inspected by a member of the processing plant and a USDA inspector. USDA inspectors visually assess every inch of each chicken, looking for disease, droppings or bruises.
Any bird flagged as problematic will be removed from the production line, reprimanded, and the problem fixed. It's important to remember that today's chickens are the healthiest they've ever been - scrapping accounts for only one percent of total production.
Step 7: Additional Testing
After the chicken is cooled, the company and the USDA conduct microbiological testing of equipment and products at the chicken processing plant to further ensure food safety. This includes testing for microorganisms such as Salmonella.
Due to the effectiveness of these processes, the industry'sproportion of positive Salmonella results is very small compared to total production. According to the latest USDA data, 2.7% of whole chickens tested positive forSalmonella at large operations, which reflect the majority of U.S. chicken production. That’s well below the 7.5% standard set by the USDA.
As a reminder, all chicken is safe to eat as long as it is handled correctly and cooked to an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit. While the industry goes to great lengths to control microorganisms that cause foodborne illness before chicken products leave the factory, it is equally important for consumers to follow these very simple cooking instructions to ensure overall food safety.
Step 8: Secondary processing
After proper testing and cooling, the carcasses are often cut and deboned to suit a variety of products. Depending on the processing plant, these products may include fresh or frozen chicken sold in stores, used in restaurants, or exported. This includes convenience products such as drumsticks, thighs, legs, wings, breasts and more, sold in the "tray packs" most commonly found at local grocery stores.
All in all, each piece of chicken undergoes quality, hygiene and food safety inspections before reaching consumers, with more than 300 safety checks throughout the process.
Step 9 : Packaging
After cutting the chicken into small pieces, place it on a tray and wrap it. The packaged product is then inspected again to ensure it meets or exceeds consumer and customer expectations.
The packaged products are placed into baskets and passed through a "blast tunnel" where they are cooled. This is done to keep the product fresh, thus extending its shelf life. Although the product cools significantly during this process, it does not freeze.
Once the product has properly cooled, it will be weighed and the price and safe handling instructions will be affixed to the packaging. Labels on chicken packaging must be approved by the USDA before being applied to the product.
The product then goes through a metal detector for a final inspection to ensure there is nothing in the package that does not belong in the package.
Finally, package the product into a box and label the outside of the box. The label displays the packaging date, USDA seal of approval, and facility number so the product can be traced back to the facility where it was produced.
Step 10 : Transportation
Finally, the chicken will be shipped to local markets. Before the finished product is loaded onto the truck, the trailer is inspected to ensure it is operating properly and is properly cooled and cleaned.
Once shipment is complete, the trailer is sealed with a tamper-evident seal. The seal will not be broken before the product reaches the customer to ensure the safety and hygiene of the product.
Retail products are typically shipped to the retailer's warehouse the day after leaving the manufacturing facility. In most cases, chicken products are placed in stores the same day they are delivered.
