Cutting Out Contaminants with Fanuc Meat Processing Robots

Con­t­a­m­i­nants are a very real part of our food pro­cess­ing indus­try. We see mul­ti­ple sto­ries plas­tered all over the news about recalls on food prod­ucts because of dif­fer­ent bac­te­ria or oth­er con­t­a­m­i­nant issues. The meat pro­cess­ing indus­try is no excep­tion. That is why some meat pro­cess­ing plants are turn­ing to robots, like Fanuc meat pro­cess­ing robots, to cut down on those contaminants.

Accord­ing to the Cen­ters for Dis­ease Con­trol (CDC), one out of every 6 Amer­i­cans will get sick from food-borne ill­ness­es every year. That is 48 mil­lion peo­ple! That is why it is so impor­tant to find new ways to keep harm­ful pathogens and oth­er con­t­a­m­i­nants out of food. A pro­duc­tion work­er at a meat pro­cess­ing plant can eas­i­ly come to work sick, or bring in pathogens. Their close con­tact with the food makes it an easy tar­get from spread­ing ill­ness. Fanuc robots do not get sick, and they do not leave the facil­i­ty or have con­tact with oth­er struc­tures in the facil­i­ty, dra­mat­i­cal­ly reduc­ing cross-con­t­a­m­i­na­tion issues. 

Clean­li­ness is imper­a­tive, whether you are a human work­er or a robot. Human work­ers need to adhere to the clean­li­ness stan­dards of your facil­i­ty 100 per­cent of the time. How­ev­er, that is not always the case. Human error hap­pens. With Fanuc robot­ic meat pro­cess­ing sys­tems and a reg­u­lar clean­ing sched­ule for robots, con­vey­ors, and cut­ting tools, there is no need to wor­ry about these contaminants. 

Fanuc offers many food-grade robots that are accept­able in dif­fer­ent areas of the food indus­try, includ­ing meat pro­cess­ing. The M‑430iA is USDA accept­ed by the meat and poul­try indus­try, accord­ing to Fanuc. The robot is made of mate­ri­als that are able to with­stand the humid­i­ty in a meat pro­cess­ing envi­ron­ment, as well as the high pres­sure clean­ing with hot water and strong chem­i­cals nec­es­sary to keep the robots safe for meat pro­cess­ing automation. 

Also, it is impor­tant to ensure that all robots, like the M‑430iA, are fit­ted with equip­ment that do not break and con­t­a­m­i­nate the food with met­al shards, espe­cial­ly when it comes to meat cut­ting. Accord­ing to Fanuc, equip­ment sur­faces are smooth, cor­ro­sion and abra­sion resis­tant, shat­ter­proof, non­tox­ic, and non­ab­sorbent. This means that any greas­es or oth­er mate­ri­als used on the robot are food-grade and safe for humans. 

How­ev­er, the cut­ting robots are not the only robots that have to be food grade, accord­ing to the USDA. Robots, like the M‑3iAand LR Mate 200iC/​5C, that work with unpack­aged and pack­aged food have to have an IP67 rat­ing, mean­ing they are water­proof and can with­stand harsh envi­ron­ments. They must also use food-grade grease to avoid contamination. 

Are you inter­est­ed in learn­ing more about meat pro­cess­ing with Fanuc robots? Then you should con­tact Robots​.com today. Our staff will work with you to find the best meat pro­cess­ing robot sys­tem avail­able for your facility. 

For more infor­ma­tion, con­tact Robots​.com today at 877−762−6881 or reach rep­re­sen­ta­tives online. Learn more about meat pro­cess­ing automa­tion.