Alternative CL testing gives Woolworths Bunbury faster results

A third of all meat sold in Woolworths supermarkets in Western Australia is packed at the company’s Bunbury plant. The plant conducts thousands of chemical lean (CL) analyses every year.

Finding the traditional microwave methods too time-consuming, Woolworths gave Next Instruments, an Australian manufacturer of near-infrared analysers, an opportunity to demonstrate the MultiScan Series 3000 Food Analyser.

The MultiScan Series 3000 Food Analyser.

Next Instruments developed calibrations for CL in beef, pork and lamb from 45 to 95 CL using over 1000 meat samples provided by Woolworths’ Bunbury plant. Woolworths was impressed with the MultiScan’s performance, but wanted the analyser to be AusMeat certified.

Next Instruments put forward a proposal to AusMeat to validate the instruments’ suitability for measuring CL. An extensive trial was conducted at Westons Technologies laboratory in Enfield, Sydney, and a study submitted. AusMeat granted the Series 3000 Food Analyser certification approval in March 2012.

By implementing the MultiScan, the Woolworths Bunbury plant has improved yield and sped up production.

“It would normally take up to seven minutes to complete a Chemical Lean test using the CSIRO’s microwave method, but with the new MultiScan we can get results in under three minutes,” said Jenny Marns, QA Manager at Woolworths Bunbury.

“This gives us the ability to give production the results quicker, allowing them to make ‘real-time’ adjustments to the production and consequently giving us better yield management.”