Automation helps achieve steak uniformity

21 May 2017

The Brazilian foodservice sector demands uniform-quality case-ready products. “Hotels and restaurants demand products of the same size and same weight,” said Eduardo Walter, general manager at MasterCarnes, a meat supplier to the foodservice sector.

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To create uniform thin beef steaks, the company employs a small but efficient system in its production line which consists of a Marel I-Cut 11 PortionCutter for cutting same-weight beef steaks and a Platino Flattener for flattening and softening the meat and standardising the size. “We installed the portion cutter and flattener because we had a lack of qualified workers to do the job,” said Walter. “With one machine we are able to cut what we would otherwise need 12 people for.

“When cutting by hand, the variation in weight is between 10%-15%, but with the machine we see an absolute maximum in cutting variation of just 3%.” The company has seen other benefits, including less need for meat storage as the result of quicker run-time, better hygiene, higher productivity and a uniform look and presentation to the final product.