Nowadays, industry requires non-destructive, non-invasive, and low costs systems to detect in a rapid and reliable way different kinds of foreign bodies inside the meat products. In particular, this thesis deals with the problem of bone fragments inside chicken fillets, since poultry meat is the most produced meat in the world. Two different ultrasound systems (contact and air-coupled) are studied and analyzed in this master dissertation, as they represent a promising technology to solve the aforementioned problem. The detection of bone fragments using ultrasounds is based on the principle that the presence of a foreign body results in a decrease in the ultrasonic wave’s energy, making it possible to identify the different foreign bodies inside the samples (sizes of 2x1.5 cm, 2x1 cm, 1.5x0.3 cm, 1x0.3 cm and 0.5x0.3 cm). The results obtained confirmed that both contact and air-coupled ultrasounds systems are able to detect foreign bodies inside chicken sample, obtaining an overall detecting accuracy of 84% for the contact ultrasound equipment. In addition, this percentage could increase until 94% if only the two largest fragments analyzed are considered. This result is promising, but it must be confirmed by further studies, trying to improve the accuracy of the ultrasonic measurements when analyzing very small fragments, using more focused transducers, or increasing their frequency. Finally, in order to implement this system at industrial level, it is necessary to assess the influence of the irregularity in the shape of the chicken fillets, since the samples analyzed in this master dissertation were properly cut to avoid uneven thickness. Future research should focus on calculating the detection accuracy also for the air-coupled ultrasonic system, and to test also different kind of foreign bodies and other types of food samples with both techniques.

Use of ultrasounds technologies to detect foreign bodies in poultry meat

LINCETTI, ELISA
2021/2022

Abstract

Nowadays, industry requires non-destructive, non-invasive, and low costs systems to detect in a rapid and reliable way different kinds of foreign bodies inside the meat products. In particular, this thesis deals with the problem of bone fragments inside chicken fillets, since poultry meat is the most produced meat in the world. Two different ultrasound systems (contact and air-coupled) are studied and analyzed in this master dissertation, as they represent a promising technology to solve the aforementioned problem. The detection of bone fragments using ultrasounds is based on the principle that the presence of a foreign body results in a decrease in the ultrasonic wave’s energy, making it possible to identify the different foreign bodies inside the samples (sizes of 2x1.5 cm, 2x1 cm, 1.5x0.3 cm, 1x0.3 cm and 0.5x0.3 cm). The results obtained confirmed that both contact and air-coupled ultrasounds systems are able to detect foreign bodies inside chicken sample, obtaining an overall detecting accuracy of 84% for the contact ultrasound equipment. In addition, this percentage could increase until 94% if only the two largest fragments analyzed are considered. This result is promising, but it must be confirmed by further studies, trying to improve the accuracy of the ultrasonic measurements when analyzing very small fragments, using more focused transducers, or increasing their frequency. Finally, in order to implement this system at industrial level, it is necessary to assess the influence of the irregularity in the shape of the chicken fillets, since the samples analyzed in this master dissertation were properly cut to avoid uneven thickness. Future research should focus on calculating the detection accuracy also for the air-coupled ultrasonic system, and to test also different kind of foreign bodies and other types of food samples with both techniques.
2021
Use of ultrasounds technologies to detect foreign bodies in poultry meat
ultrasounds
foreign body
poultry
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12608/41845