Grading and classification of beef carcasses are traditionally done by certified graders, who visually assess the ribeye. By nature, grading this way is strenuous and subjective and the results from different graders, or even from the same grader over the course of a day, tend to exhibit significant variation.
Q-FOM™ Beef changes that. Grading results from Q-FOM™ Beef are independent of the person operating the instrument, and long-term testing has proven Q-FOM™ Beef to be highly consistent as well as accurate across a wide variety of cattle.
Standard parameters measured in a few seconds with a single picture of the ribeye include Marbling, Fat Color, Meat Color, and Eye Muscle Area.
Reliable grading with Q-FOM™ Beef
An operator can after a short training grade a carcass every 10-20 seconds with Q-FOM™ Beef and keep that pace throughout the working day. The fact that the instrument is easy to use and can grade at this speed, mitigates the concern many plants have about the long-term cost, availability, and quality of certified graders.
Quality and productivity improvement
The classification and the sorting group a carcass is assigned have a significant impact on what price the carcass can be traded at or what it will be used for in production. Incorrect grading has a significant impact on the brand perception and eventually the pricing of the end products.
Meat processors that demand consistency in the grading of meat quality in the individual plant as well as across plants cannot rely on subjective grading. With Q-FOM™ Beef this consistency is provided and allows the individual plant and the group to implement effective quality and productivity improvement programs.
Plant IT integration with GO MES module
Q-FOM™ Beef can be fully integrated with the plant’s production planning system via a GO MES module. With this integration implemented, the plant’s ERP system can download task lists, specifying to GO which carcasses are ready for grading and transferring existing data relevant for calculating the sorting code.