Economic value and cost of automated on-line poultry inspection for the US broiler industry

Abstract

The US Department of Agriculture, Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) uses visual (organoleptic) methods to inspect individual carcasses on-line at US broiler slaughter plants. The current system is very labor-intensive and is directly related to industry production capacity. Continued expansion of production capacity within the broiler industry requires additional staffing of FSIS inspectors. However, FSIS is currently under a hiring freeze. Also, FSIS wants to redeploy on-line inspectors to more pressing tasks, such as the oversight of industry compliance with food safety and pathogen reduction standards. This study evaluates the economic value and costs of using an automated inspection technology in place of visual organoleptic inspection in the US broiler industry for the period 1997–2001. The results indicate the US broiler industry would gain from $1.55–$2.57 billion in discounted throughput value over the next five years if automated inspection is used in place of organoliptic methods and line speeds are operated at 100 birds per min. The results also indicate FSIS could redeploy approximately 1342 inspectors to other in-plant tasks by adopting automated inspection, but would have to pay additional expenses related to the installation of the technology in slaughter plants. These additional expenses range from $32 to $59 million in discounted cost over the five-year period, and could be payed either in part or in whole by the broiler industry.