 | Read the full story: Prestage Foods Streamlines Turkey Processing Through Automation |
I’m Michael Costa, senior editor for ProFood World Magazine, and I’m in Camden, South Carolina, visiting one of our Manufacturing Innovation Award winners for 2023. This is Prestage Foods’ state-of-the-art, highly automated, greenfield turkey processing plant. Let’s have a look inside.
Prestage made long-term investments in automation to increase efficiency and ease the labor challenges common in the meat industry.
The result – a plant that processes up to 48,000 turkeys daily with less than half the workers needed before automation, saving $22 million in labor costs annually.
It’s the only plant in the Western Hemisphere to use an industrial scale air-chilling system for turkeys. That adds food safety by avoiding dirty water baths, traceability for each turkey in the system, and sustainability with 95% water savings.
All this automation benefits workers too. The most difficult and repetitive tasks are automated or made easier, and as a result, employees enjoy the industry’s first single-shift, 10-hour, four-day workweek.
