YIELDPLUS™ DEBONE / TRIM MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FROM GAINCO IMPROVES POULTRY YIELDS, THROUGHPUT AND QUALITY

Increased demand for high-quality poultry dark meat products sparks demand and popularity.

Atlanta, Ga., January 26, 2011— The YieldPlus™ Debone/Trim Management System from Gainco helps poultry processors get “more out of their meat” and deliver additional profits to the bottom line. With more emphasis than ever being placed on improving yield and profits, poultry processors can significantly reduce their labor requirements in dark meat deboning and breast trimming operations, while at the same time achieving measurable improvements in portion control consistency, product yields, throughput and quality.

For example, with the YieldPlus™ system, users typically can achieve up to 5% or more in improved boneless dark meat yields, giving them a very rapid return on their investment.

Commenting on the successful introduction of the YieldPlus™ system, Joe Cowman, general manager of Gainco, stated, “With the increasing popularity of dark meat menu items, poultry plants are experiencing more demand than ever for providing high quality dark meat products to the market. There is strong interest in installing systems that will maximize yields while delivering a better quality finished product compared to mechanically deboned meat. As a result, our YieldPlus™ systems are being widely adopted by the industry as the preferred tool for dark meat deboning.”

The design and components of the YieldPlus™ system is unique, enabling it to deliver better results. The system brings together advanced product distribution and data collection systems from Gainco with the yield improving and labor-saving technologies of Bettcher Industries’ Whizard® Series II Trimmers.

The YieldPlus™ system measures data continuously by individual operator station, thereby allowing poultry processors to hold their employees individually accountable for their performance in areas of yield, portion control consistency, quality and productivity. With the YieldPlus™ system in place on the processing floor, meat quality is improved through the ability of supervisors to immediately identify and eliminate problem areas in the process (or with operators) quickly and easily – thereby eliminating the incidence of bone fragments, cartilage or other product defects.

Incoming product is automatically weighed to a target batch weight and distributed to each operator for further processing (dark meat deboning or filet trimming). The advanced product distribution system regulates the flow of product batches to ensure each operator maintains an adequate amount of working product without overflow. Multiple product handling and flow control issues associated with most manual deboning and trimming systems are thereby eliminated.