Devices for removing at least the crop from slaughtered poultry, also known as crop removers or (de)croppers, are known among others from the applicant's firm and from European patent application 0.162.254 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,178,578, for example. A suchlike crop remover is installed downstream from an eviscerating machine. In the crop remover, with the help of a rotating crop probe which passes into the poultry carcass via the vent, the whole crop and the trachea as well as everything else attached to the neck is removed. The crop remover is subsequently removed through the opposite neck opening of the carcass in order to permit delivery of the loosened parts to a tray placed under that and to be cleaned, after which the crop remover can be retracted again to an out-of-operation position.
In slaughter lines, in particular in the so-called eviscerating lines, a number of stations are arranged after the crop remover, such as station where the neck is broken, a station where the inside of the carcass is cleaned and a station where the outside of the carcass is cleaned. Applicant already offers for sale a neck breaker, which breaks the neck and in one embodiment removes it without unnecessarily damaging the skin of the neck and in another embodiment removing the neck together with the skin of the neck. For this reference can be made to the applicant's Dutch patent application 79.04779. In addition, a combination neck breaker/final control machine is part of the applicant's delivery programme, in which not only the neck is broken but also the inside of the carcass is sucked clean. With the help of a pipe provided with a slanting end introduced from above, the lungs and other parts not suitable for consumption, which remained behind after evisceration, are removed. In addition, the applicant has an automatic inside-outside washer, in which the outside of the carcasses is cleaned with sprayers, while the inside is washed by means of a water tube with a special mouth piece. Finally, a combined crop remover/inside-outside washer can be mentioned, in which the inside of the carcasses is washed with the help of spray water supplied via the crop probe.