Time to Solve the Need for Automated Meat Packing? Call in the Robots

Finally, meat production is getting automated thanks to an army of food-production robots.

Rob Spiegel

October 20, 2021

1 Min Read
Meat.png
YouTube

During the height of the pandemic, meat-packing plants experienced devastating COVID-19 breakouts among their workers. Even the plants that didn’t experience infection breakouts still had to shut down. There was no practical way to social distance in the heavily hands-on work environment.

Not surprisingly, plant managers turned to the robot industry for help. There are plenty of robots working in food and beverage. The automation industry has figured out effective ways to wash down equipment and track goods to meet regulatory requirements. In those applications, the goods getting moved around tend to be standard in size, weight, and texture. It’s easy for a robot to move standard cartons of salad greens. But meat?

Yet, where there’s a will there’s a way. Where there’s a need for automation, there are innovative companies ready to give it a shot.

The video shows how a pork facility and a lamb facility deployed robots to meet the need for automation. A warning: the video is graphic. We’re talking meat here.

 

About the Author

Rob Spiegel

Rob Spiegel serves as a senior editor for Design News. He started with Design News in 2002 as a freelancer covering sustainability issues, including the transistion in electronic components to RoHS compliance. Rob was hired by Design News as senior editor in 2011 to cover automation, manufacturing, 3D printing, robotics, AI, and more.

Prior to his work with Design News, Rob worked as a senior editor for Electronic News and Ecommerce Business. He served as contributing editolr to Automation World for eight years, and he has contributed to Supply Chain Management Review, Logistics Management, Ecommerce Times, and many other trade publications. He is the author of six books on small business and internet commerce, inclluding Net Strategy: Charting the Digital Course for Your Company's Growth.

He has been published in magazines that range from Rolling Stone to True Confessions.

Rob has won a number of awards for his technolloghy coverage, including a Maggy Award for a Design News article on the Jeep Cherokee hacking, and a Launch Team award for Ecommerce Business. Rob has also won awards for his leadership postions in the American Marketing Association and SouthWest Writers.

Before covering technology, Rob spent 10 years as publisher and owner of Chile Pepper Magazine, a national consumer food publication. He has published hundreds of poems and scores of short stories in national publications.

Sign up for the Design News Daily newsletter.

You May Also Like