Topkip Head Only Stunner awarded first prize
TopKip’s head only stunning device has been awarded first prize by the Dutch MVO Poultry award 2011 committee.
The award is an initiative of the Dutch MVO group (Societal Justified Entrepreneurship) representing the Product Board Poultry and Eggs, the Dutch Poultry Centre and the Foundation Fund for Poultry interests.
The Head Only Stunner is a promising alternative for existing water bath stunning systems, and the award recognises the efforts continuously taken by the entire TopKip team, to create an innovative machine with great potential. It also generates another boost to finalise and implement the first commercial versions of the system throughout the Netherlands and to prepare (potential) customers worldwide for the stunning innovation for poultry processing.
The Head Only Stunner is a carousel type machine positioned in the slaughter line between the shackling position and the killing position. At the infeed of the machine the shackles are forced to the outside creating space between the products.
Subsequently the broilers are captured in plastic cones that move upward. The head of the broiler passes through the bottom side of the cone and is locked up by spring-loaded electrode plates that automatically adjust to the head size of the broiler. The broiler is currently still in the “resting phase” and therefore does not experience any stress.
In the next step, after the closing of the electrodes, a resistance measurement is carried out on the head of the broiler. A split second later (<0.1 sec) the sophisticated electronic heart of the machine has exactly determined the correct voltage level to ensure a correct stun at the preset amperage (250 mA), which is applied immediately.
In accordance with the EU legislation the stunning sequence proceeds for three seconds while the voltage level is adjusted continuously subsequent to multiple measurements on the head of each individual broiler.
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