poultry defeathering

For what appears like a relatively straightforward process activity, the use of waxes in the poultry defeathering industry has a surprisingly divers range of product requirements. Built on years of experience in combination with a close collaboration of process machinery manufacturers Paramelt have developed an extensive range of plucking waxes to cover a broad range of operating scenarios and poultry types.

Long service life

One of the benefits of wax as the stripping for removing the last vestiges of fine feathers and stubble, is the ability to clean up and reuse the wax after each cycle. The service life of the wax is primarily impacted by the uptake of contaminants such as water, blood, fat and feather residues, which can negatively influence the mechanical, thermal and adhesive characteristics of the blend. In addition, repeated processing of the wax through broad temperature cycles in both dry and aqueous environments can lead to further deterioration of the wax performance. The high initial performance of Cereplume waxes combined with the use of raw materials compatible with this operating environment protected by appropriate performance additives to stabilize the system, lead to the best possible service life from the wax. This unique combination of properties are key to ensure the lowest costs of ownership from the wax process with savings as high as 75% in wax consumption having been achieved.

High purity - food grade

Naturally, since the poultry being processed is exposed to the Cereplume wax for a length of time across a range of temperatures, there is the potential for transfer of contaminants from the wax onto the bird. This means that only carefully selected, high purity, food grade raw materials are used in the formulation of our Cereplume range. In addition to this we produce in an FSSC 22000 manufacturing facility operating under HACCP principles to ensure the highest possible security in the supply chain.

Manual or automated plucking processes

Depending on the exact nature of the process being employed the speed, severity and mode of action in dewaxing can vary significantly and require substantially different characteristics from the wax used to ensure complete removal of all remaining vestiges across the full operating window.

Clean removal

The role of wax within the poultry processing sector is to ensure perfect skin presentation with no remaining feathers or stubble. To achieve consistently good results requires a consistent and tailored balance of wax properties, which are well matched to the process conditions. In particular, it is important to achieve an optimal balance of stiffness, strength and cohesion from the wax blend whilst ensuring that it does not become too strongly adhered to the skin.

High line speed - fast congealing

A rate limiting step in dry poultry processing using wax can be the time taken for the wax to congeal sufficiently to achieve the mechanical properties required for effective wax stripping whilst ensuring efficient feather removal. In addition to formulating our poultry waxes for clean and effective removal, Paramelt also ensure the use of carefully selected and controlled wax fractions to give optimal and consistent congealing behaviour matched to the needs of our customers’ processes.

Operating temperature

The operating temperature of the wax application bath in combination with immersion time allow for the control of the wax coating weight. The applied wax weight is critical in ensuring the desired defeathering performance. If too little wax is applied this can lead to incomplete coverage or poor plumage removal. In contrast a too high applied weight will lead to slower congealing behaviour and poorer removability. As well as the impact on application weight and removability, the wax must be designed to ensure that the required balance of operating temperature and immersion time does not cause a detrimental impact on skin presentation.