ENVIRONMENTAL-ISSUES FOR THE POULTRY-INDUSTRY - PROCESSING

The water flow and waste loading patterns of a modern broiler processing plant (260,000 birds per day) were studied. The study was conducted in two phases. The first phase examined the water flow and waste-loading patterns during a 24-h period. The second phase studied flow and waste-loading patterns from five major process functions of the plant. The first phase study showed that 84% of the water flow of the plant was used for processing and the remaining 16% for plant sanitation. Based on received water, this plant used 5.08 gal (1 gal = .379 L) per bird. Analysis of the waste stream from five process functions determined that 72% of the plant flow came from the evisceration operation. The feather flow operation and the offal truck contributed 83% of the NH3N discharged by the plant. Definition of flow and waste-loading patterns provides valuable information for enhancing water conservation and waste minimization.