Nortura (Norway)

The meat processing industry is experiencing a significant technological transformation, with automation and robotisation increasingly complementing traditional manual labour. Advances in artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and human-robot collaboration—core elements of Industry 5.0—are central to this shift. These technologies are being adopted to address persistent labour shortages, amplified by events such as the COVID-19 pandemic, and to meet growing demands for safer, more sustainable, and resilient food production systems. Despite ongoing progress, a consolidated overview of automation technology in secondary meat processing, particularly in the context of Industry 5.0, is lacking. This review addresses this gap by examining recent technological developments, identifying current industry needs, and outlining key research challenges. The focus is on the secondary processing of the world’s most consumed meats by volume: poultry, pork, beef, and veal. Emerging technologies show strong potential to enhance productivity, food safety, and working conditions. However, major barriers to adoption remain, including high integration costs, strict food safety compliance requirement, and the need for flexible systems that can accommodate variability in raw materials. Automation levels vary significantly between meat types, generally decreasing with animal size. The review emphasises the need for adaptable, modular automation solutions that support gradual integration into existing operations. Addressing critical challenges, including labour shortages, hygienic processing, and environmental sustainability, will be key to ensuring a more robust and future-ready meat processing industry. • Flexible automation can allow gradual integration into existing systems. • Cobots and AI augmentation can enable hybrid workflows in meat processing. • HRC is a transformative enabler, particularly for SMEs seeking scalable automation. • Industry 5.0 transition implies balancing technological, economic and social aspects.

The aim of this study was to examine how silages from different grassland species and harvesting frequencies affect feed intake, milk production, and methane (CH4) emission in dairy cows. We hypothesized that cows consuming silages of more frequent harvest, grass species with greater OM digestibility and legumes with lower NDFom concentration would have greater silage DMI and milk yield and thereby lower CH4 yield and intensity. Forty Norwegian Red cows were allocated to 5 treatments in a cyclic changeover design with four 21-d periods (14 d of adaptation, 7 d of data collection). The 5 treatments evaluated were silages produced from timothy (Phleum pratense L.) in a 3-cut system (T3), timothy in a 2-cut system (T2), perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) in a 3-cut system (PR3), red clover (Trifolium pratense L.) in a 3-cut system (RC3) and a mix of T3 and RC3 (50:50 on DM basis; T3/RC3). The treatments were prepared by mixing silages from each crop over the growing season, proportional to the harvested DM yield of each cut. Cows were offered the mixed silages ad libitum supplemented with a fixed level of concentrate. Gas emissions were measured using 2 Greenfeed units. Milk yield was recorded in the milking robot at each visit, and milk samples were collected at 3 consecutive milkings during the last 7 d of each period. Cows were weighed after each milking, and total-tract digestibility of each diet was estimated using acid insoluble ash as internal marker in fecal grab samples. The data were analyzed using the MIXED procedure of SAS with block, period, and treatment as fixed effects and animal within block as random effect. Silage and total DMI did not differ between T3 and T2, but total DMI was lower for PR3 than for T3. There was a quadratic effect of increased proportion of red clover, with highest intakes of T3/RC3 and lower intakes of RC3 than of T3. Energy-corrected milk yield was lower for T2 than T3, and for PR3 than T3. There was a quadratic effect of increased proportion of red clover, with highest ECM yield in T3/RC3 and lower in RC3 than in T3. Organic matter digestibility was lower for T2 than T3, but it did not differ between T3 and PR3. Including red clover in the diet linearly decreased OM digestibility. Methane production (g/d) did not differ between T3 and T2, but CH4 intensity (g/kg ECM) was greater for T2 than for T3. There was no difference between T3 and PR3 for CH4 production but yield and intensity were greater for PR3 than T3. Including red clover in the diet linearly increased CH4 production, yield and intensity with greatest intensity in the 100% red clover diet. In conclusion, changing harvesting frequency for timothy from 2 to 3 harvests per year did not affect CH4 production or yield, but CH4 intensity was reduced. Replacing timothy with perennial ryegrass and increased inclusion rate of red clover both increased CH4 yield and intensity.

"Alemayehu Kidane" was not included as an author in the original publication [...].

Innovative feeding strategies tend to improve the quality properties of raw material and dry-cured products. In the present study, Norwegian White female lambs (n = 24) were finished during 35 days on three different diets: control (CD), control supplemented with seaweed (5% DM) (SD), and pasture (PD). The quality of raw meat (Semimembranosus + Adductor) and deboned dry-cured lamb leg (fenalår; n = 24) was studied. The heme, SFA, MUFA, and PUFA content in raw meat was not affected with finishing diet. The SD significantly increased the selenium, iodine, and arsenic content in raw meat and in the dry-cured leg the iodine and arsenic. The dry-cured leg from SD-lamb had the highest amount of iodine with 130 µg I/100 g which corresponds to 60% of Adequate Intake. Aldehydes, ketones, and esters in raw meat and dry-cured lamb leg were significantly affected by finishing diet; CD showed increased esters in raw meat and aldehydes in the dry-cured leg compared to SD and PD. The significantly higher content of simple sugars, mannose being the most dominant, was found in the dry-cured leg from SD-lamb compared to CD and PD. Finishing diets had no effect on the taste profile of dry-cured lamb leg. This study showed the potential of seaweed in iodine biofortification of lamb meat and dry-cured products. Iodine-rich meat products should reduce iodine-deficiency among humans.

Abstract Background: Necrotic enteritis is a significant problem to the poultry industry globally and, in Norway up to 30 % of Norwegian turkey grow-outs can be affected. However, despite an awareness that differences exist between necrotic enteritis in chickens and turkeys, little information exists concerning the pathogenesis, immunity, microbiota or experimental reproduction of necrotic enteritis in turkeys. In particular, it is important to determine the appearance of the gross lesions, the age dependency of the disease and the role of netB toxin of Clostridium perfringens . To this end, we report our findings in developing an in vivo experimental model of necrotic enteritis in turkeys. Results: A four tier (0-3) scoring system with clearly defined degrees of severity of macroscopic intestinal lesions was developed, based on 2312 photographic images of opened intestines from 810 B.U.T. 10 or B.U.T. Premium turkeys examined in nine experiments. Loss of macroscopically recognizable villi in the anterior small intestine was established as the defining lesion qualifying for a score 3 (severe intestinal lesions). The developed scoring system was used to identify important factors in promoting high frequencies of turkeys with severe lesions: a combined Eimeria meleagrimitis and Clostridium perfringens challenge, challenge at five rather than three weeks of age, the use of an Eimeria meleagrimitis dose level of at least 5 000 oocysts per bird and finally, examination of the intestines of 5-week-old turkeys at 125 to 145 hours after Eimeria meleagrimitis inoculation. Numbers of oocysts excreted were not influenced by Clostridium perfringens inoculation or turkey age. Among three different lesion score outcomes tested, frequency of severe lesions proved superior in discriminating between impact of four combinations of Clostridium perfringens inoculation and turkey age at challenge. Conclusions: This study provides details for the successful establishment of an in vivo model of necrotic enteritis in turkeys.

The main objective of this work was to develop a method for rapid and non-destructive detection and grading of wooden breast (WB) syndrome in chicken breast fillets. Near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy was chosen as detection method, and an industrial NIR scanner was applied and tested for large scale on-line detection of the syndrome. Two approaches were evaluated for discrimination of WB fillets: 1) Linear discriminant analysis based on NIR spectra only, and 2) a regression model for protein was made based on NIR spectra and the estimated concentrations of protein were used for discrimination. A sample set of 197 fillets was used for training and calibration. A test set was recorded under industrial conditions and contained spectra from 79 fillets. The classification methods obtained 99.5–100% correct classification of the calibration set and 100% correct classification of the test set. The NIR scanner was then installed in a commercial chicken processing plant and could detect incidence rates of WB in large batches of fillets. Examples of incidence are shown for three broiler flocks where a high number of fillets (9063, 6330 and 10483) were effectively measured. Prevalence of WB of 0.1%, 6.6% and 8.5% were estimated for these flocks based on the complete sample volumes. Such an on-line system can be used to alleviate the challenges WB represents to the poultry meat industry. It enables automatic quality sorting of chicken fillets to different product categories. Manual laborious grading can be avoided. Incidences of WB from different farms and flocks can be tracked and information can be used to understand and point out main causes for WB in the chicken production. This knowledge can be used to improve the production procedures and reduce today’s extensive occurrence of WB.

Objectives Sliced fermented salami sausages packaged in modified atmospheres (MA) are prone to discoloration by a combination of residual O2 in the headspace and light at retail display. To avoid discoloration, packages of uncooked salami should be stored in darkness until all O2 is removed by internal processes in the product, usually within a few days. The aim of this study was to determine if the color of salami could return from brown to red by extended illuminated display in pack-ages with MA`s, in which residual O2 was present in the early, but not the later stage of display. Materials and Methods Dry fermented raw salami was produced with pork, pork fat, beef, starter culture, salt, sugars and 120 ppm sodium nitrite. Packages with 150 g sliced salami were inserted with air and CO2 through self-sealing septas to contain approximately 5% O2, 50% CO2 and 45% N2 with a gas to product ratio of 1.1 to 1. The lower and up-per films for the packages were laminates with EVOH as O2 barrier. The transparent packages were exposed to continuous LED light type 68 W 830 (Glamox AS, Oslo, Norway) of 3.5 W/m2 (1100 lux) for 10 d at 20°C. Concentrations of O2 in the packages were measured at the time of packaging and d 1, 2, 3, and 4 of display with a Checkmate 3 instrument (Dansensor, Ringsted, Denmark). CIE L*a*b* values (lightness, redness and yellowness) were analyzed through the packaging films at d 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, and 10 of display with a Minolta Chroma Meter CR-400 (Konica Minolta Inc., Tokyo, Japan). The experiment included 3 batches of salami with 5 packages per batch. Analysis of variance was performed for all data using a general linear model in Minitab 17 Statistical Software (Minitab Inc., State College, PA, USA), and means were separated by Tukey’s multiple comparison test. Results Concentrations of O2were reduced from the initial 5% to 0% at d 4 of display. The initial a* values of sausages from the 3 batches were approximately 16, which is fully red. Within 2 d of display, a* values were substantially reduced to 9 to 10 (P

Twelve litters were offered nipple drinkers (NIPPLE treatment) as the only source of water after weaning at 32–35 days of age, and 12 litters were offered water from a water bowl (BOWL treatment). Water usage was measured using water meters and blood samples were taken from four randomly selected piglets from each of eight. The water intake was similar in the two treatments for days 1–3 and days 4–7, but significantly higher in the NIPPLE treatment for days 8–14 (P<0.05). Daily gain was higher (P<0.05) in the NIPPLE treatment. The water quality was much better in the NIPPLE treatment, especially on days 7 and 9. Plasma osmolality was higher in the NIPPLE treatment at day 1, but at day 5 osmolality was highest in the BOWL treatment. We conclude that water supply from nipple drinkers is a better alternative for weaned piglets because of higher water intake, better water quality, and improved daily gain.