IBP severs ties with AMI
IBP Inc. has decided against renewing its membership in AMI, citing the organization's increased focus on poultry.
The Dakota City, Neb.-based company, which does not expect to join another organization, said it will direct its resources into projects that directly benefit the red meat sector.
IBP Chairman Robert Peterson said the decision was based on structural changes in the industry and within AMI, according to a letter to AMI President J. Patrick Boyle.
IBP's bone of contention is AMI's inclusion of poultry firms. The company opposed AMI's decision in 1991 to widen its membership to include poultry processors.
The company believes it weakens AMI's ability to lobby effectively for red meat companies. Peterson pointed to issues that deal with differences between poultry and red meat, differences that red meat processors maintain gives poultry processors an economic advantage.
IBP believes the top priorities for red meat processors in the next decade will be an overhaul of the inspection system and the cost-competitive position of the industry.
IBP has paid about $162,000 a year in membership dues.
USDA outlines approach to blunt sausage contamination
Salami and other fermented dry sausage products will be routinely tested for a virulent strain of E. coli to prevent future outbreaks of food-borne illness, according to USDA.
Eleven people in Washington and three people in California contracted food-borne illnesses caused by a strain of E. coli bacteria from eating dry sausage manufactured by the San Francisco Sausage Co. The strain was confirmed by laboratory testing, and the company voluntarily recalled all its sausage products and temporarily halted production.
USDA outlined two options that the nation's 250 dry sausage processors could choose to ensure product safety: They could follow USDA procedures to validate the adequacy of their production process, or adjust their production process to include a heat treatment that would destroy pathogens that might be in the product.
"This protocol tells industry what and how they need to test to make sure their current processes are affective against E. coli 0157:H7," said FSIS Associate Administrator Thomas J. Billy.
The protocol for sausage-making was reviewed by universities, private industry and scientists at USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service.
IBP, Cargill add to Alberta kills
Two slaughtering giants are about to add to the number of kills in Alberta.
IBP Inc. will double production capacity at its newly acquired Lakeside Farm Industries plant in Brooks, Alberta, allowing it to slaughter 4,000 head a day. Currently, Lakeside kills 11,000 head a week.
IBP will also add beef fabrication and rendering facilities, as well as allied product operations at the plant. The number of employees will triple from the current 550.
Dakota City, Neb.-based IBP purchased Lakeside last year.
Cargill Foods will begin double shifting its High River, Alberta, slaughtering plant, increasing the number of kills by about 9,000 head a week by 1996.
Minneapolis-based Cargill will build a 100,000-square-foot addition to accommodate the expansion. Construction is scheduled to begin this spring.
When the two plants reach full, double-shift capacity, they will require an additional 925,000 to 1 million cattle a year, according to Cattle Buyer's Weekly. The weekly kill in Alberta could rise to 46,000 head.
USDA diet study: Red meat
consumption down, chicken up
Consumers are eating more chicken and fish and less red meat than they did a quarter century ago.
People ate 20 fewer pounds of beef, pork, lamb and other red meats per person in 1993 than in 1970, according to a USDA report comparing eating habits of today's consumers with those diets of 1970.
Additionally, the report said consumers ate 27 pounds more chicken and other poultry products, and 3.2 pounds more seafood.
The report said most Americans are attempting to improve their diets, but that a considerable gap remains between public health recommendations and public practices.
"Americans are slowly, and with fits and starts, shifting their eating patterns toward more healthful diets," the report said.
Tom Dybdahl, a researcher for Prevention Magazine, said: "Virtually no one is just saying across the board: 'I'm going to eat everything that's healthy.' They are saying: 'I know I've got to limit fat, so because I like cheese, I'll drink skim milk; or because I like premium ice creams, I'll use non-fat salad dressings.' "
NPPC seeks new CEO
Wanted: A person who can guide an organization through the rapid changes now occurring in the pork production industry.
That is the advertisement for the National Pork Producers Council's opening for CEO. Russ Sanders, who held that position since 1989, resigned. He left March 7.
Sanders has accepted a position as senior vice president of marketing for Princeton, Mo.-based Premium Standard Farms.
NPPC Past President Karl Johnson is chairing the search committee. "We believe there is a place for all progressive producers in the pork production business of the future if they are provided all necessary information to remain competitive," he said. "That remains our organization's goal."
Sanders was with NPPC for 15 years. While in the position of vice president for marketing, he helped coordinate the "Pork. The Other White Meat" marketing campaign.
"That was one of the most personally rewarding periods for me at NPPC," Sanders noted.
Don Tyson resigns as chairman
Don Tyson is stepping down as chairman of Tyson Foods Inc., effective April 21, his 65th birthday. He will remain on the Tyson board in the newly created position of senior chairman.
The poultry and pork processing giant will be run by Leland Tollett, 57, who will also retain his titles of president and CEO. He will run the day-to-day operations of the Springdale, Ark.-based company.
"I have a number of other things I want to do in life," Tyson said.
As senior chairman, Tyson will serve as chairman of the Tyson board's executive finance committee and devote his time to corporate financial decisions.
Meanwhile, Tyson Foods will shut down its beef processing plant in LeMars, Iowa, on March 31.
Some of the plant's 250 employees will be relocated to other Tyson plants. Company officials said the facility will be sold to Harkers Distribution Inc., a foodservice distributor. Terms were not disclosed.
Super Bowl pork ad rates low
The National Pork Producers Council's Super Bowl XXIX ad did not elicit an initial favorable response from consumers.
It rated a 5.45 on an ad meter sponsored by USA Today. The mark was the sixth lowest of 42 ads measured.
USA Today assembled 59 randomly chosen volunteers in Charlotte, N.C., and charted their second-by-second reaction to Super Bowl ads.
The volunteers, chosen by the Gallup Organization, used hand-held meters, numbered one to 10, to register how much they liked or disliked an ad. A computer continuously averaged the 59 scores.
The pork ad's 5.45 rating was the highest averaged calculated during the presentation.
The ad was the beginning of the Pork industry's "Taste What's Next" campaign. Jumping from jerk pork stands to white linen restaurants, from in-home to outdoor preparation, the spots feature pork as the "dish that is bringing excitement to dinner tables everywhere."
Two 30-second spots from the new campaign were aired twice on the pre-game show, twice prior to kick-off and once during the first half. The ads have run periodically on network and cable television since the Super Bowl.
User fees back in budget
The Clinton administration's fiscal year 1996 budget contains user fees totalling $107 million for meat and poultry inspection.
Most of the fees would come from charging plants for inspection after the day's first eight-hour shift.
Clinton's fiscal 1995 budget included user fees. But an industry coalition successfully lobbied against including them in the final budget. The coalition has been resurrected in an attempt to accomplish the same task this year.
While a Republican-led Congress would generally be against user fees, the promise of a balanced budget by 2002 will put all questions of increasing revenues and decreasing government spending on the table. This may put the user fee issue into play.
Hormel to expand pork plant
Hormel Foods Corp. is undertaking a major renovation and expansion in pork processing facilities leased to Quality Pork Processors Inc. in Austin, Minn.
The $19 million project, designed to produce volume increases, productivity gains and cost controls, will include a 50,000 square foot cooler addition; renovation of the present pork processing area; expansion of rendering operations; and improvements in waste treatment procedures.
Work will begin in June and is expected to be finished by next March.
The project will increase pork slaughtering capacity from 13,000 to 16,000 head a day. Sixty-five new jobs will be added.
"The development of many new value-added, consumer-branded products, such as our line of consumer ready fresh pork, has necessitated the expanded capacity and demand for increased raw materials," noted V. Allan Krejci, Hormel director of public relations. The increased capacity will provide Austin-area farmers with a source to market an additional 750,000 hogs a year.
Promotion adds to summer beef
A Beef Industry Council promotion to increase retail sales of beef resulted in a 77 million pound increase in sales during a 11-week period last summer, according to recently released research.
The added tonnage represented an additional $140 million in sales over the same period in 1993.
During the period between June 12 and Aug. 27, 94 retailers and 26,000 stores across the nation participated in the promotion, which included local radio advertising featuring the industry theme, "Beef. It's What's For Dinner."
In some cases, retailers were allowed to customize the last 30 seconds of the commercial with their own beef specials.
USDA proposes
change in beef grading
USDA, at the behest of the National Cattlemen's Association, is proposing changes in the beef grading system. The department says the changes should result in more uniformity in beef graded "Choice" and "Select."
The current beef grades-Prime, Choice, Select and Standard-are designed to rate the palatability of beef, principally through marbling and maturity characteristics.
USDA is accepting public comments on the proposal through April 19.
Lon Hatamiya, USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service administrator, said the proposed revision would remove animals about 30 to 42 months old from the Choice and Select grades. They would instead be graded Standard.
Hatamiya said such carcasses often vary in palatability, which contributes significantly to inconsistency in the Choice and Select grades. Although cattle in that age group make up only a small percentage of U.S.-fed beef, their variability can contribute significantly to consumer dissatisfaction with the grading process, Hatamiya said.
Meat improved our gray matter
London Observer
Carnivores, take heart. Meat-eating is what made humans brainy. Scientists say the move away from an all-vegetarian diet triggered the growth of human intellect.
Until early humans began eating protein and carbohydrate-rich meat, their metabolic resources were absorbed by energy-demanding digestive systems that had to process vast amounts of vegetation, according to a paper in the journal Current Anthropology.
But about 1.8 million years ago, our predecessor, Homo erectus, changed behavior and stopped being a vegetarian-only forager. About this time, primitive scrapers start appearing in the fossil record, near the bones of pigs, hippos, buffaloes and other animals. Either humans were killing them, or they were scavenging in the wake of other carnivores.
"It was not just meat, but fat and bone marrow that were being consumed," said Leslie Aiello of University College London's anthropology department. "Such easy-to-digest foods require smaller stomachs and intestines, which use up less energy. That surplus fed our brains, which began to grow significantly."
Of course, meat-eating does not guarantee cleverness. It was just that in the case of early mankind, it permitted an already smart creature to get even smarter.
Until then, human brain sizes were curtailed because, as Aiello puts it: "As a species, you cannot have a big brain and big guts. Producing energy for both would have kept you so busy you would not have had time for reproductive behavior."
But why did early humans pick this moment to begin eating meat? "There was a great deal of environmental change going on around 2 million years ago," Aiello points out. "And that brought a lot of evolutionary pressure on all animals who had to adapt or perish."
At this time, vegetarianism began to die out. Some australopithecine ape-men, predecessors of Homo erectus, developed huge jaws and stomachs to process unappetizing leaves and grasses. That became extinct, however.
Our ancestors adapted by chance, a more flexible approach, developing strategies for eating all sorts of different foods-including meat.
That wasn't the end of the story.
A second wave of human brain increases, which began about 400,000 to 500,000 years ago, was fueled by fire-literally.
"Cooking is a technological way of externalizing part of the digestive process," according to Aiello. Cooked foods requires even less digesting and so reduced further the size of our stomachs, permitting further increases in brain size.
Our growth in intellect, therefore, appears to have started with a raw steak and was completed with a plate of stew.