Foodmate develops dark meat deboning system

To meet the needs of the fast-growing dark meat market in the United States as well as in foreign markets, Foodmate has developed the OPTI-LTD Dark Meat Deboning System to supply various segments of the market with different boneless dark meat products.

The flexible system can be used to debone all variations of dark meat such as whole leg, thigh and drumstick meat.

The OPTI-LTD Whole Leg Deboning System can debone whole legs, thighs or drumsticks all on the same machine, allowing processors the flexibility to supply boneless dark meat product to different markets.

“Over the years, deboning dark meat has been labour intensive and costly,” Foodmate USA www.foodmateusa.com president Scott Hazenbroek said. “The OPTI-LTD enables our customers to produce higher quality yields at a faster rate and in a cost-effective way.”

The OPTI -LTD Whole Leg Deboning System can handle any size chicken and is capable of deboning 100 skinless or skin-on whole leg, thighs and drumsticks per minute. It can process both left and right legs at the same time, with no need to separate the legs.

Foodmate’s Dark Meat Deboner is capable of meeting all boneless leg meat specifications while providing increased yield and a higher quality of meat. The flexible system does not require additional parts or change to the setup when switching between products.

“Our innovative scrapper design gives the meat a hand-cut appearance,” Hazenbroek said. “This deboning system removes the meat with low bone content left in the meat and leaves the pin bone on the leg which cuts down on manual trimming.”

The all-mechanical design reduces maintenance cost and the openness of the design makes the OPTI-LTD easy to clean.