ABSTRACT
Poultry processing is a complex combination of biology, chemistry, engineering, marketing, and economics. While producing human food is the main goal of poultry processing, related fields include waste management, non-food uses of poultry, and pet/livestock feeds. When considering the global marketplace, poultry refers to any domesticated avian species, and poultry products can range from a slaughtered carcass to a highly refined product such as a frankfurter or nugget. However, because they dominate the market, chicken and turkeys will be the focus of this book. The common classes of commercial poultry are summarized in Table 1.1. The reader should remember that specific numeric processing conditions in this book are for illustrative purposes and that these conditions may vary between processors. The aims of this book are both to instruct the user in what steps/conditions are used for processing poultry and to explain why things are done that way. This approach will enable the reader to evaluate problem situations and develop possible solutions.
