Patent ID: 7588489

Claim:
A post chill decontamination tank assembly for decontaminating poultry carcasses for positioning at a carcass discharge end of a poultry chiller, said post chill decontamination tank assembly comprising: a tank for receiving the poultry carcasses from the poultry chiller, said tank including an entrance wall, an exit wall opposed to said entrance wall, and a semicylindrical perimeter wall extending between said entrance wall and said exit wall and defining a chamber for containing a decontamination solution, said tank including a partition positioned between said entrance wall and said exit wall dividing said tank into a bird entrance chamber and a paddle chamber, said partition including a lower edge positioned above the lower portion of said tank to allow the poultry carcasses to pass from said entrance chamber to said paddle chamber, an upwardly positioned opening means including an entrance space for receiving the poultry carcasses from the poultry chiller into said bird entrance chamber of said tank and a discharge space for discharging the poultry carcasses from said paddle chamber, a paddle assembly including a plurality of paddles mounted in said paddle chamber about a central axis and positioned at different angles about the central axis, power means connected to said paddle assembly for revolving said plurality of paddles in unison about the central axis in said tank, said paddles configured for gathering the poultry carcasses in said paddle chamber and discharging the gathered poultry carcasses from said paddle chamber as said plurality of paddles revolve in said tank.