Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SliceWatch (Monitoring Meat Texture To Optimize Slicing Yield And Reduce Wasted Meat In High-Speed Slicing Lines)

Teaser

SLICEWATCH project aims at establishing the technical and commercial feasibility of a new technology for industries producing sliced meat products. SLICEWATCH is based on an in-line inspection technology that allows assessing meat texture. We have obtained a national patent...

Summary

SLICEWATCH project aims at establishing the technical and commercial feasibility of a new technology for industries producing sliced meat products. SLICEWATCH is based on an in-line inspection technology that allows assessing meat texture. We have obtained a national patent (PCT pending) protecting both the proposed method, and different possible implementations.
Meat texture is an important technological parameters for meat processors, since the presence of soft-textured meat often results in problems during slicing operation. Soft-textured meat is responsible for substantial economic losses related to wasted and discarded meat, as well as to stoppages of the production lines.
Through this “Phase I” project, we aimed at assessing the feasibility of SliceWatch by (1) developing a Business plan, and (2) carrying out a technical feasibility study in collaboration with end-user meat processors.

Work performed

In the context of SLICEWATCH project, we have completed the following tasks:
• Performance of a market survey among meat processors producing sliced products, aiming at identifying key target markets, and the functional specifications for SLICEWATCH technology
• Elaboration of a business plan covering strategic, marketing and financial aspects related to the commercial exploitation of SLICEWATCH technology
• A technical feasibility study based on a set of trials carried out at the facilities of meat processors
As a main outcome of this work, we have confirmed the economic and technical feasibility of the project.

Final results

We aim at further developing SliceWatch technology to bring the technology into a commercial stage. Meat processors will benefit from an important reduction in the amount of discarded meat annually, which is estimated in 1000t of meat, annually, after 5 years of penetration of SliceWatch technology.