“What distinguishes this facility is the absolute focus value added poultry products both for retail channel and foodservice,” he said.
All of the chicken will be air-chilled and there will be more chicken raised without antibiotics and for the halal market.
The equipment and processes will be the most modern in Canada because.”we’ve taken the best of proven technology from around world and assembled it in to one facility.
"That covers food safety, worker safety, animal welfare and environmental compliance.
"In animal welfare, for example, over $50 million of the facility will be devoted to upgraded animal welfare practices that range from CO2 stunning to temperature-controlled and lighting-controlled lairage to allow the birds to rest, and modularity in handling birds all the way through to the transportation systems we are innovating to reduce the stress of the animals."
(Chicken Farmers of Ontario is moving all producers to robotic chicken catching.)
“From an environmental perspective, our goal is to make this facility ultimately a zero-waste landfill plant, which is an important objective en route to the Maple Leaf overarching goal of a 50 percent reduction in our footprint.
"But it also has everything from LED lighting to the most efficient technologies around water and energy utilization.
“For the actual processing lines, there will two high-speed processing lines that deploy the latest in robotic efficiencies — all the way from high-yield auto deboning through to the materials handling systems. So it’s also been designed with the latest equip from an efficiency perspective.”
McCain said pork remains Maple Leaf’s main meat, but chicken is growing faster than pork and Canada needs an up-to-date slaughter and processing plant to remain competitive.
