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Your Product · Meat & Poultry

Raw protein is hard to handle.
That's exactly what we automate.

Whole-muscle cuts, poultry, sausage & chubs, snack sticks, bacon, and ground beef — JLS automates the wet, sticky, irregular protein handling that is genuinely difficult to automate. Washdown-ready, USDA-inspected plant fit. Made to get wet and never get tired.
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Over 70 years
Built on precision, reliability & trust
Multiple
U.S. patents in food packaging automation
Application-matched
Sanitation matched to machine, process & plant zone
U.S. Built
Engineered in-house

JLS builds robotic packaging automation purpose-built for meat and poultry processors — vision-guided and sensor-based non-vision systems that handle beef, pork, poultry, sausage, bacon, snack sticks, and ground meat into trays, thermoformers, flow wrappers, chubs, and cases. JLS-engineered VOB 2.0 tooling grips wet, sticky, irregular protein, and IP69K-rated components handle daily washdown in USDA-inspected plants. Every system is engineered, programmed, and supported entirely in-house by JLS.

In action

Watch JLS handle meat & poultry — at full production speed.

Ground beef brick pack case packing Ground Beef

Ground beef brick pack case packing

Vision-guided robots case pack ground beef brick packs at full production speed.

Pain points we solve

Meat & poultry's toughest
packaging headaches. Solved.

We've spent decades on protein lines — beef, pork, poultry, sausage, bacon, and deli. These are the problems meat and poultry processors bring us most — and how JLS robotics solve them.

Sanitation & washdown The challenge

Sanitation & food safety under constant washdown

How JLS solves it

JLS builds meat and poultry systems with IP69K-rated robots and components, NEMA 4X-rated control enclosures, and open-frame stainless steel construction when the application calls for it, and designs them to fit USDA-inspected plants — built for the daily high-pressure washdown these environments require.

Gripping wet, sticky raw protein The challenge

Wet, sticky, slippery raw protein that's hard to grip

How JLS solves it

VOB 2.0 Vacuum on Board tooling and custom EOAT pick raw beef, pork, poultry, and portioned cuts straight off the belt — no mechanical sorting, gentle handling.

Cold, wet cut-room labor The challenge

Labor that's hard to staff in cold, wet rooms

How JLS solves it

Vision-guided robots take over the cold, repetitive packing positions, fill chronic labor gaps, and free your people for higher-value work.

Throughput & line speed The challenge

Throughput & consistency capped by hand-packing

How JLS solves it

Talon, Osprey, Hawk, and Kestrel run at line speed with repeatable placement every cycle — from the grinder, portioner, and stuffer through the tray line and into the case.

Applications

Meat & poultry packaging automation, loading to case packing.

From primary loading through case packing — matched to your protein product, pack format, and line speed.

1

Thermoformer & vacuum-skin packs

Talon places fresh beef, pork, and poultry cuts into thermoformer pockets and vacuum-skin packs with proper orientation — vision-guided, no mechanical sorting. Handles the wet, irregular protein that demands specialized tooling.

Talon
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2

Foam, MAP & paperboard tray loading

Talon TL loads fresh cuts and ground portions into foam, plastic, paperboard, or MAP trays; Osprey TL then loads finished trays into cases — fragile seal zones handled gently, up to 180 trays/min in a Tri Head Osprey TL configuration.

TalonOsprey TL
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3

Ground meat chubs & brick packs

Osprey CL case-packs ground beef, pork, and poultry chubs at high speed — the V-TRACK pick conveyor prevents rolling, with quick-change tooling for chubs from 8 oz to 10 lb — and Osprey BP case-packs brick packs. Integrates with Reiser/VEMAG stuffing upstream.

Osprey CLOsprey BP
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4

Sausage, links & snack sticks

Kestrel collates fresh sausage links, hot dogs, snack sticks, and portioned cylinders at up to 600 ppm single-head* (*depends on product and package type) and orients them for automated case packing — eliminating hand-loading in the coldest part of the plant.

Kestrel
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5

Bacon draft loading

Harrier loads shingled bacon drafts and fresh pork belly slabs gently and consistently — designed to prevent slips, flips, and distortions — purpose-built for the wet, high-fat environments of bacon packing lines.

Harrier
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6

Retail-ready cases & cartons

Load MAP, foam, and thermoformed protein packs into RSC or retail-ready cases with Hawk's compact top-loading, handling rigid containers and cases across beef, pork, and poultry SKUs.

Hawk
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Have a custom meat & poultry need?

If your product, pack format, or line doesn't fit the applications above, our application engineers will design, test, and prove the right solution — before you commit.

Talk to an application engineer

Test before you commit

Send us your meat & poultry products.
We'll put them to the test.

JLS Flight Lab puts your product on real JLS robotics in York, PA. Before the design is finalized, send us product samples — whole-muscle cuts, ground, sliced deli, sausage, bacon, or poultry — or a close proxy, subject to project scope and availability. JLS application engineers test tooling, pick method, and pack pattern to establish feasibility; rate is validated during FAT before shipment, with final commissioning completed at your facility.

Feasibility
Tooling & pick method tested
U.S. Built
York, PA Flight Lab
Pre-sale
Application testing, subject to availability
Schedule a Flight Lab test

Customer Case Study · Berks Packing

Robotics on a daily-washdown sausage and processed meat line.

Berks Packing — a 90-year-old, third-generation family meat processor in Reading, PA — has steadily expanded its use of robotics as production volumes grow and labor markets tighten. JLS installed a Talon vision-guided pick-and-place loading system on Berks's sausage and processed meat line.

When I think of JLS, I think about excellence. They are the cream of the crop — I’d recommend them to any processing facility.

— John Buckley, Director of Operations, Berks Packing

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See the configuration, throughput, and results behind this install.

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Designed to get wet. Built to be cleaned.

In a USDA-inspected meat or poultry plant, sanitation isn't a feature — it's the whole game. JLS matches each meat and poultry system's construction to the plant's sanitation program — from cleanable construction where product is already packaged to full daily, high-pressure, high-temperature washdown where it is exposed — so your line stays compliant and your downtime stays low.

IP69K*
Rated components for washdown
NEMA 4X
Rated control enclosures
USDA
Designed to fit inspected plants
Open-frame
Sloped, minimal harborage

* IP69K refers to the ingress-protection rating of selected components (robots, motors, enclosures) specified for an application — not a rating of the complete machine.

FAQ

Meat & poultry packaging automation FAQs.

Sanitation, tooling, throughput, ROI, and integration.

Most JLS meat and poultry packaging projects evaluate payback in the 24–36 month range, depending on labor cost, shift schedule, line speed, uptime improvement, and the specific application. Labor savings scale with the platform, line speed, and labor model, with added value from improved throughput and more consistent protein handling. JLS reviews your product, package format, line speed, staffing model, and current production challenges to determine where automation creates the strongest return.

JLS automates fresh and processed meat and poultry — whole-muscle and portioned cuts, ground meat chubs and brick packs, sausage, bacon, snack sticks, frozen patties, and sliced deli — loaded into thermoformers, trays, pouches, cartons, and cases.

Vision-guided robots with custom end-of-arm tooling and JLS-engineered VOB 2.0 Vacuum on Board technology pick raw protein straight off the belt — no mechanical sorting and gentle handling, engineered and lab-tested per product.

Yes. This is the environment JLS designs for first. Talon primary handling is hygienic design — sloped surfaces, minimal harborage points, tool-less access — with IP69K-rated robots and components for daily high-pressure, high-temperature washdown. Osprey, Kestrel and Osprey CL secondary systems use cleanable construction with NEMA 4X-rated control enclosures. Systems are designed to applicable USDA/FSIS sanitary specifications for USDA-inspected plants.

Yes. JLS integrates with grinders, VEMAG stuffers, linkers, thermoformers, tray sealers, conveyors, case packers, checkweighers, and metal detectors, and partners with Reiser into one coordinated protein line.

Talon loads thermoformers and trays; Kestrel collates sausages and snack sticks; Harrier loads bacon drafts; Patty Hawk case-packs frozen patty stacks; and Osprey and Hawk case-pack chubs, trays, and cases.

It depends on your product and package format — fresh meat, poultry, sausage and chubs, beef and snack sticks, bacon draft, or formed and portion-controlled. JLS has a dedicated solution for each and helps match the right system to your line.

Throughput depends on product and format. Talon TL tray loading and Talon primary loading into thermoformers are sized to the sealer or thermoformer's rate. Osprey CL case-packs chubs at up to 240 chubs per minute, depending on chub size, weight, pack pattern, and system configuration. Kestrel collates and loads links and sticks at up to 600 per minute single-head, product and package dependent. Patty Hawk case-packs frozen patty stacks at more than 1,000 patties per minute, product and tooling dependent. JLS sizes every system to your line and SKU mix.

Changeover between protein SKUs is recipe-driven through the HMI, with tooling changes designed to be simple and repeatable — and, on washdown lines, tool-less where the application allows so sanitation and changeover do not fight for the same window. JLS reviews your SKU mix, product dimensions and changeover goals so the system fits the plant's schedule.

Yes, where the product suits it. Fresh protein is wet, variable and often needs specific orientation, so JLS tests your product samples in the York, PA Flight Lab with tooling configured for them — whole muscle into trays or thermoformer pockets, ground product into cases — to establish the pick method before the design is finalized. Product that cannot travel fresh can be tested on a close proxy with the differences flagged. It is a feasibility test, not a production-rate run.

Often, yes. Primary loading is typically added between the slicer, portioner or former and the thermoformer or tray sealer already running; case packing is added after the primary-package sealer. The final design depends on floor space, line speed, product presentation, controls and — critically in a USDA-inspected plant — sanitation access around the new cell. JLS reviews the full line so the system fits how the plant runs.

JLS typically reviews the product and cut type, dimensions, photos or video of the current line, package format, target speeds, SKU mix, labor model, sanitation requirements, available floor space, upstream and downstream equipment, and the main problem to solve.

Meat and poultry systems are designed, built and programmed at JLS in York, Pennsylvania, for USDA-inspected plants, and supported by an in-house team backed by direct access to JLS engineering and controls expertise. Support covers the whole line JLS supplies — Talon primary loading, Osprey case packing, Kestrel collation, Osprey CL chub loading and Patty Hawk frozen patty packing — with remote diagnostics, on-site service, sanitation-aware training and parts.

Still have a question that isn’t answered here?

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Have a meat or poultry product you need automated?

Tell us what you’re packaging and what you’re trying to solve. A few sentences is enough.

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Ready for the realities of your meat & poultry line?

Bring us your product. We'll test it in our York, PA lab, engineer the automation, and prove the application — before we say yes.

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JLS + Reiser: Expertise across the line

Planning a complete meat & poultry line?

JLS builds complete meat and poultry lines — from the grinder, portioner, and stuffer through tray loading, case packing, and cartoning — integrated as a single solution from one team in York, PA.

Full food production line — JLS + Reiser: expertise across the line Ten production-line stages across four zones. JLS-built robotic automation stages are shown in purple; stages available through Reiser's OEM portfolio in blue; customer-selected or partner equipment in gray. Dashed lines mark coordinated integration points. Prepare. Portion. Form. Load. Seal. Case. Carton. Collate. Stack. Secure. 01Mixing &blendingGrindingEmulsifyingMarinatingTumblingAvailable throughReiser portfolio 02Forming &portioningStuffingExtrudingPatty formingDepositingAvailable throughReiser portfolio 03FurtherprocessingSlicingDicingShreddingTenderizingAvailable throughReiser portfolio 04PrimaryloadingPick & placeVision-guidedLane loadingProduct collationJLS TALONJLS KESTRELJLS Automation 05PrimarypackagingThermoformingTray sealingVacuum / MAPSkin packAvailable throughReiser portfolio 06CasepackingRobotic case loadingRobotic loadingWashdown configurationsWashdown optionsJLS OSPREYHAWK · PATTY HAWKCase erecting & sealing via partner equip.JLS Automation 07CartoningForm, load,close cartonsCompact footprintWashdown-capable designJLS PEREGRINEPEREGRINE ISJLS Automation 08Collation /bundlingCount & stackBundle packMultipackPartner equipmentscope-dependent 09PalletizingLayer buildingRobotic palletizingSlip-sheet placeLayer padPartner equipmentscope-dependent 10LoadsecurementStretch wrapBandingCorner boardTop sheetPartner equipmentscope-dependent Tier 1 Primary Packaging The package that touches the product Tier 2 Secondary Packaging Cases, cartons, and multipacks for retail or distribution Tier 3 Tertiary Packaging Stretch wrap, ship-ready unit

Together, JLS and Reiser help food manufacturers develop coordinated processing and packaging lines—from product preparation and primary package loading and sealing through cartoning and case packing, with third-party collation, palletizing, and load securement coordinated into the plan.

Illustrative line architecture. Stages, equipment suppliers and sequence vary by product and project scope. Not every food line uses every stage, and slicing, cooking, freezing, inspection and other processes may occur in different positions.

Scroll left and right to scan the full line. Open the printable line map →

JLS-built robotic automation Available through Reiser’s OEM portfolio Customer-selected / third-party equipment Coordinated integration point

Reiser role across the line

Food-processing expertise, application development, equipment selection, product testing, and sales & lifecycle support.

JLS role at robotic packaging stages

Robotic engineering, product & package handling, controls interfaces, and integration & FAT when included in project scope.

Let’s talk more about planning your full line.

Tell us who you are and a bit about your line. An automation expert will reach out — and we’ll bring the right people from JLS and Reiser to the conversation.

Your details
Facility location
Your line today
What you're planning
What solution(s) are you interested in?* Select all that apply.
Project timeline

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Over 1,000 custom installs. Predictable performance. Premier, dedicated service.

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  • Remote diagnostics + on-site support
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