Improving Meat Quality, Marketability, and Safety for Todays Consumer

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Improving Meat Quality, Marketability, and Safety
for Todays Consumer

• Chris Kerth, Ph.D.
• Assistant Professor
• Meat Science

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Outline

• Research
• Pork quality
• Grass-finished beef acceptability
• Future research
• Food and Agricultural Products Center
• Muscle Food industry in the U.S.
• Importance of preparing young people for a career
  in the Muscle Food industry

3
Outline

• Research
• Pork quality
• Grass-finished beef acceptability
• Future research
• Food and Agricultural Products Center
• Muscle Food industry in the U.S.
• Importance of preparing young people for a career
  in the Muscle Food industry

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Research Pork quality

• Most pig breeding programs have focused on
  selection for rapid production of lean meat.
• Selection for lean growth has generally been
  antagonistic to meat quality.

• Fast-twitch, glycolytic (FG) muscle fibers are
  large in diameter, so selecting for muscle growth
  may select for FG fibers.
• The ratio of muscle fiber types in a muscle can
  be influenced by
• Physical activity (Andersen and Henriksson, 1977)
• Nutrition (Karlsson et al., 1994)
• Selection (Brocks et al., 2000)

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Correlations (Kerth et al., 2001)
P Fiber type Other factors
The relative proportion of muscle fiber types
accounted for up to 20 - 25 of the variation in
pork quality traits.
Pork Quality traits
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Pork quality (Wilborn et al., 2002)

• Distribution of muscle fiber type can be
  regulated by calcineurin (Chin et al., 1998).
• A calcium-dependent enzyme.
• Calcineurin inhibition increased the relative
  proportion of Type II (FG) fibers from 14 to 31
  in mice.
• Increasing the activity of calcineurin by
  increasing cellular calcium should promote SO
  fiber types and slow pH decline.
• Feeding supplemental vitamin D3 to beef cattle
  has shown to increase cellular serum calcium to
  improve tenderness (Montgomery et al., 2002).

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Pork quality - Methods

• Duroc-cross pigs (n 25) were assigned to one of
  three experimental finishing diets containing
• 0 IU/kg supplemental vitamin D3
• 40,000 IU/kg supplemental vitamin D3
• 80,000 IU/kg supplemental vitamin D3
• Pigs were on test diets for 44 or 51 days.

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Pork quality Plasma
Vitamin D3
Calcium
25Hydroxy-Vit D3
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Pork quality - pH
Gluteus medius
DietHour Diet P 0.98 P 0.006 SEM
0.080 SEM 0.033
Longissimus
DietHour Diet P 0.64 P 0.04 SEM
0.093 SEM 0.038
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Pork quality L values
SEM 0.82 0.99
0.80 0.90
0.66 NS
Bars connected by a common line do not differ
(P 0.05).
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Pork quality Drip loss
SEM 0.70 Treatment P0.06 Day x
Treatment P0.98
Bars connected by a common line do not differ (P
0.05).
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Outline

• Research
• Pork quality
• Grass-finished beef acceptability
• Future research
• Food and Agricultural Products Center
• Muscle Food industry in the U.S.
• Importance of preparing young people for a career
  in the Muscle Food industry

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Grass-finished Beef

• One of the best resources in the beef industry is
  the cow-calf and stocker operations in the
  Southeast
• Mild climate makes calving easier
• Forage is available year round
• Most of these calves are shipped to KS, OK, TX,
  and CO to be finished in feedlots.
• Alternative marketing systems for producers in
  the southeast are needed.
• Grass-finished beef may be an alternative if the
  market (consumer) will accept the product.

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Grass-finished beef

• 30 Angus-cross steers
• 10 finished on rye grass
• 10 finished on concentrate
• 10 on rye grass last 90 days on concentrate
• Test
• Carcass
• Trained sensory WBS
• Fat color (before/after trim)
• Retail display
• Consumer acceptability
• FA profile
• Vitamin E carotenoids

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Grass-finished beef
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Grass-finished beef Loin/rib fat color
Trim differences existed among all color
measurements
c b a
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Grass-finished beef - WBS
Loin
Rib
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Grass-finished beef

• Consumers (n150)
• Blind taste test
• Grass,Grain,Grass/grain
• Score
• Price
• Visual perception
• Preference
• Price

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Grass-finished Beef Price
Taste test
Visual perception
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Research Program Results

• PI or co-PI on 12 grants totaling 757,714 since
  1999.
• Publications
• Refereed papers 13
• Abstracts 25
• Invited articles 2
• Technical reports 8

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Outline

• Research
• Pork quality
• Grass-finished beef acceptability
• Future research
• Food and Agricultural Products Center
• Muscle Food industry in the U.S.
• Importance of preparing young people for a career
  in the Muscle Food industry

?
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Future research - Philosophy

• My training is in muscle biology
• My research focus has tended to be much more
  applied
• Solving problems presented
• Helping industry
• Training students

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Other research projects

• Reducing airborne/aerosolized bacteria in meat
  processing facilities (Kerth et al. 2002a, b).
• Use of electrostatically polarized, low-density
  media
• Scanning ultraviolet light
• Relationship between aerosolized contaminants and
  food product contamination (Helm et al. 2002).
• Commercial processing facility producing fully
  cooked products.
• No significant correlation between air and
  product contamination.
• Repeatability (r 0.88) of small clam-shell
  grills for research cookery (Kerth et al., 2002).

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Color

• One of the primary methods consumers used to
  select fresh meat
• Lighting is commonly used to promote the
  appearance of high quality products
• CAB

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Color

• Utilizing methods to reduce oxidation (UV light)
  reduces formation of metMb
• Cuts stay fresh longer
• Longer shelf life
• Less throw-away, More

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Future Research

• Producing and marketing grass-finished beef.
• Joint project with
• Auburn University
• Mississippi State
• University of Kentucky
• Louisiana State University
• A new cow-processing plant is under construction
  in Grenada, MS
• Develop marketing alternatives for producers

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Future Research

• Production and carcass characteristics of meat
  goats browsing mimosa.
• Joint project with Tuskegee University
• SARE grant
• Developing carcass gradingformulationsand
  compositionanalysis
• 9-10-11 rib cut

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Research Ambitions

• Regardless of species
• Regardless of fresh or processed
• Regardless of basic or applied research
• We should be in the business of adding value
• The Definition of Value-added. The additions of
  time, place, and or form utility to a commodity
  in order to meet the preferences or tastes of the
  consumer. The true test of value added is
  achieved when the after tax return on invested
  capital used to generate time, place, and or form
  utility exceeds the overall cost of capital.
  OSU FAPC website

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Outline

• Research
• Pork quality
• Grass-finished beef acceptability
• Future research
• Food and Agricultural Products Center
• Muscle Food industry in the U.S.
• Importance of preparing young people for a career
  in the Muscle Food industry

?
?
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Food Ag Products Center

• My role at the FAPC
• Short-term
• Mid-term
• Long-term
• To generate and disseminate technical and
  business information that will stimulate and
  support the growth of value-added food and
  agricultural products processing in Oklahoma.

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Meat Industry

• We are in the business of selling protein.
• Who are the competitors?

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U.S. Meat Industry
OK U.S.1st 5th 2nd 8th 3rd
14th 9th/18th 7th/11th 15th 27th
Beef Pork Poultry Peanuts/Pecans Soybeans

• In Oklahoma

• Beef cattle generate 1.9 billion (2001)
• More than 3 times 2nd or 3rd
• Clearly, demand for these commodities are
  essential to OK agriculture
• How do we ensure that consumers continue to
  demand these products?????

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Introduction

• Consumers are very fickle
• What they bought today is not necessarily what
  they will buy tomorrow.
• They assume no responsibility for the quality of
  food that they buy.
• They assume no responsibility for the safety of
  the food that they eat.

??? ???
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Consumer Demand
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Oklahoma Agriculture

• How can this model be applied to Oklahoma ag
  products?
• Create new and exciting products that consumers
  want
• Convenient
• Taste
• Safe

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FAPC

• Short-term
• Identify collaborators
• Scientists at OSU
• Industry contacts
• Identify opportunities for research
• At OSU
• With processors
• National opportunities

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FAPC

• Mid-term
• Establish funding to allow any/all research to be
  carried out
• Industry contracts
• Extramural grant-writing
• Establish programs that enable needed research to
  be done as needed.
• Graduate program goals
• Extension program goals
• Research program goals

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FAPC

• Long-term
• Enhance value-added business in Oklahoma
• Attract businesses
• Enhance current business
• Enhance value-added education in Oklahoma
• Extension activities
• Graduate and undergraduate programs

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Outline

• Research
• Pork quality
• Grass-finished beef acceptability
• Future research
• Food and Agricultural Products Center
• Muscle Food industry in the U.S.
• Importance of preparing young people for a career
  in the Muscle Food industry

?
?
?
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Muscle Foods in the U.S.

• Food safety issues
• Pasteurization techniques
• Identification of points of contamination
• Pre-harvest
• Aerosolized and airborne
• Point-of-sale
• Consumer

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Muscle Foods in the U.S.

• Nutrition in meat products
• Reducing fat
• Changing the fat
• In foods
• Naturally
• Marketing meats good points
• Protein
• Zinc
• Iron
• B-vitamins

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Muscle Foods in the U.S.

• Point-of-purchase changes
• Case-ready
• Micro issues
• Branded products
• Shelf life (MAP)
• Increase profits (reduce labor)
• Disappearance of the meat case?
• Less full-service
• Fewer answers to consumers questions

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Muscle Foods in the U.S.

• Mergers, buyouts, and restructuring
• Companies continually try to position themselves
  to improve profits
• More diverse
• More specialized
• Big getting bigger?
• Economies of size or
• Monopolizing

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Muscle Foods in the U.S.

• Branded products
• Companies trying to differentiate themselves
• Justification for higher prices?
• Dont blend in
• USDA Certification program
• Ever increasing number of branded products
• How much is enough?

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Muscle Foods in the U.S.

• Improving the products that we have
• Muscle profiling
• Convenience
• Fully cooked
• Ready-to-eat
• Meals-ready-to-eat
• Storage
• Frozen meals
• Packaging

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Muscle Foods in the U.S.

• Opportunities are nearly endless
• Employment opportunities for students
• Research
• Product development
• The industry is in constant need of people who
  are knowledgeable about muscle foods
• Food safety is not a fad!!

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Outline

• Research
• Pork quality
• Grass-finished beef acceptability
• Future research
• Food and Agricultural Products Center
• Muscle Food industry in the U.S.
• Importance of preparing young people for a career
  in the Muscle Food industry

?
?
?
?
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Teaching

• B.S. Muscle Foods Option in Animal Science
• M.Ag. in Muscle Food Technology Safety
• Developed and currently chair this joint program
  with Poultry Science
• 30 hours course work
• 6 month internship with a special problem
• On-line M.Ag. degree program

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Students

• Educating students
• Preparing meat products
• Interacting with meat consumers
• Students teaching students
• Our future!!

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Teaching

• Graduate Students since 1999
• Graduated Masters Ph.D.
• Chair 2 0
• Committee 1 0
• Current
• Chair 6 1
• Committee 0 1 

4 graduate in December 02
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Improving Meat Quality, Marketability, and Safety
for Todays Consumer

• Chris Kerth, Ph.D.
• Assistant Professor
• Meat Science