Gut washer improves tallow quality

Meat processor Thomas Foods International’s Murray Bridge facility in South Australia has the capacity to process 5000 head of cattle and 52,500 head of lamb and mutton each week. The company recently installed a gut washer from CST Wastewater Solutions.

The latest gut washer technology washes and then flushes digested matter from animals’ guts. Using the CST gut washer, Thomas Foods is able to produce a better grade of tallow, adding value for the company. Mutton and beef are washed at the Murray Bridge facility at a rate of approximately 10,600 kg/h from the abattoir’s daily processing.

The CST Wastewater gut washer installed at Thomas Foods International.

A standard industry practice, gut washing commonly uses 6-12 mm trommel screens, which simply drain the gut with no consideration given to washing. With the CST gut washer, however, the cut gut is fed via a transition chute to the rotary screen/gut washer, which consists of an external entry swirl chamber with two offset flanged recycled wash water inlets. The cut gut is then swirled with 10 times its volume in water. The swirl water can process water, including water from the kill floor and chiller.

On entry to the screen, this water is removed for further recycling before the solids are sprayed via the product wash sparge arrangement with fresh water before final dewatering occurs.

CST’s gut washer uses a 2.8 mm wedgewire gap on the screen to optimise washing and flushing.

Close-up of the rotary screen component of the gut washer.

“Thomas Foods International is very happy with the performance of the unit and the efficiency it provides,” said Peter Bambridge, CST Wastewater Solutions’ sales manager.

“The unit is made with guarding for safety and improves the downstream results, which is highly beneficial to Thomas Foods.

“The capture rate is much better and the washing results in a cleaner, higher quality product. This leads to more easily sold by-products such as tallow and meat meal.”