Poultry Meat Product Wishbone Retention
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional deboning techniques in poultry processing often result in significant loss of breast meat adhering to the wishbone, reducing marketable yield and profit, while also failing to preserve the cultural significance of the wishbone in poultry products.
Innovation Solution
A method and system for producing a poultry meat product that includes a skinless breast portion with the wishbone intact, using a shaped blade to make specific cuts that retain a predetermined amount of breast meat attached to the wishbone, allowing for the creation of a novel poultry product that combines meat with the wishbone, thereby increasing yield and preserving cultural tradition.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If conventional deboning techniques are used to maximize boneless breast meat yield, then the amount of breast meat removed is increased, but the amount of meat adhering to the wishbone is lost and marketable yield is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of removing the wishbone to maximize boneless meat yield, the invention inverts the approach by retaining the wishbone with attached meat as a separate marketable product (wishbone breast strips), thereby converting what was considered waste into a valuable product while still maximizing overall yield
Solution Approach 2:
The breast meat is segmented into two distinct marketable products: boneless breast meat and wishbone breast strips, allowing both to be sold separately to different market segments, thus maximizing overall marketable yield while reducing waste
2Productivity
If conventional deboning techniques are used to remove all meat from the wishbone, then maximum boneless meat yield is achieved, but the cultural significance and consumer appeal of the wishbone is lost
Solution Approach 1:
Rather than removing the wishbone to achieve maximum boneless yield, the invention retains the wishbone with attached meat as a separate marketable product, thereby preserving cultural significance while still maximizing overall productivity through creation of a new premium product category
3Loss of substance
If hand cuts are used to remove all meat from the wishbone, then maximum yield is achieved, but the process is labor-intensive and less efficient
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of using labor-intensive hand cuts to remove all meat from the wishbone, the invention inverts the approach by using automated equipment to cut and retain the wishbone with a predetermined amount of attached meat, thereby improving processing efficiency while minimizing residual waste through precise controlled cuts
Solution Approach 2:
The invention changes the parameter of meat retention from 'minimum' to 'predetermined amount' on the wishbone, allowing automated cutting equipment to efficiently produce consistent, marketable wishbone breast strips with controlled meat content, thereby improving both yield and processing efficiency
Data Source
AI summary
A poultry meat product and method of producing the same. The meat product has breast meat divisible into a first portion attached to a wishbone and separated from a second portion. The first portion remains attached to the wishbone and has a width having a dimension of between 1.0 and 1.5 times a first distance between tips of the wishbone and having a length having a dimension of between 0.5 and 1.5 times a length of the wishbone. A shaped blade may be inserted into a bird carcass for cutting the breast fillets. A V-shaped cut has a first segment approximately parallel to a first wishbone leg and a second segment approximately parallel to a second wishbone leg. The cut defines a portion of the breast fillets that remain attached to the wishbone. The wishbone remains intact within the attached portion of breast fillet for producing a unique meat product.