Diluted organic residues, such as feces, ingesta and other biological substances on poultry processing plant equipment surfaces, not easily discernible by human eye, are potential contamination sources for poultry carcasses. Development of sensitive detection methods for diluted organic residues is essential to ensure safe production of poultry carcasses. Hyperspectral imaging techniques have shown good potential for detecting the presence of fecal and other biological contaminants on food and processing equipment surfaces. In this study, the use of high spatial resolution hyperspectral reflectance is presented as a tool for selecting a few multispectral bands to detect diluted organic residues on the surface of materials used for manufacturing processing equipment. Reflectance imaging methods were explored for use in the detection of a range of diluted organic residues for both wet and dry conditions. Results showed that low concentrations of wet and dry residues, diluted up to 1:100 by weight with double distilled water, could be differentiated from stainless steel background with accuracies of 94.0 and 99.7%, respectively. Spectral bands determined in this study could be used for developing a multispectral inspection system for sanitation monitoring of poultry processing plants.
