Patent ID: 7976367

Claim:
A method for eviscerating poultry having an intestine pack and a body having a centre plane and comprising a back, a breast with a breast bone, an esophagus oriented at an angle to the centre plane, a crop, legs and joints, by which method decapitated poultry suspended in the legs or joints are eviscerated in an evisceration apparatus comprising a number of evisceration devices each comprising an evisceration spoon and a guide means, wherein the evisceration spoon is inserted into the body of the poultry in a movement forward and towards the breast bone, then moved forward along the breast bone and finally swung towards the back of the poultry to a fully advanced position, in which the evisceration spoon surrounds the intestine pack on a side facing the breast, and wherein the evisceration spoon is subsequently retracted, thereby pulling the intestine pack out of the body, wherein the guide means is inserted together with the evisceration spoon and is moved across the esophagus during the forward movement within the body, and wherein the guide means forms a bend on the esophagus, thereby changing the angle between the centre plane of the body and the parts of the esophagus on either side of the bend, while the crop is being pulled loose, so that the esophagus extends from the bend to the crop in a direction more aligned with a direction followed by the evisceration spoon during retraction thereof than a portion of the esophagus extending from the bend to the evisceration spoon.