by Bryan Salvage, editor
Existing and emerging technologies at the packaging and retailer levels will play an increasingly important role in determining the future success of fresh, case-ready meat in the United States.
Fundamental change in the way some meat packers conduct business, however, must take place first.
What's it going to take to get case-ready pork and beef moving forward? "It will take a meat company that wants to market its case-ready products," answers a technical consultant for a major packaging company. "Instead of working as a large, commodity-minded supplier to the retail trade, it's going to require a meat company to think like a food company."
Packaging technology choices
Packers have various packaging technology options in their case-ready endeavors. Modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) and vacuum packaging are the most commonly used technologies in case-ready, according to the marketing director of fresh red meat for another major packaging firm.
Modified atmosphere packaging of fresh red meats usually involves a barrier package that is gas flushed with a mixture of 80 percent oxygen and 20 percent carbon dioxide. The combination allows the oxygen to extend the meat's bloom life while carbon dioxide delays microorganism growth. MAP shelf life ranges from seven to 12 days for most red meat cuts.
Vacuum technologies are commonly used for packaging fresh meat sub-primals and portions, he adds. Shelf life is extended to 21 days or more by using high-barrier materials and removing the atmosphere within the package. Meat does not bloom inside a vacuum package.
Choosing which technology ot use depends on whether a packer wants to sell the product in the retail case with bloom or sell meat featuring the reduced color of vacuum packaging while offering extended shelf life.
Industry insiders estimate that between 30 and 40 variations of MAP and vacuum packaging technologies or systems exist for case-ready meat.
Some systems require atmosphere exchange to be completed at the store.
"These systems require a piece of equipment at retail [to exchange atmospheres]," says Harry Rubbright, president of Eagan, Minn.-based The Rubbright Group.
When asked which technology is being used most for case-ready meat, a packer executive says it depends on the product.
"Most of the case-ready beef programs I'm familiar with are using a vacuum package," says Jim Riemann, director of fresh meat product development for Minneapolis-based Excel Corp. "In pork, most case-ready programs are MAP."
Excel's Double Diamond line of case-ready beef is packed in a vacuum-skin package with semi-rigid bottom film and flexible top film.
The supply side
Major suppliers of packaging materials and machinery who were contacted by Meat Marketing & Technology report an increasing number of case-ready inquiries and projects.
"Numerous plant expansions are taking place to specifically address the additional volume requirements of case-ready," says the national sales manager of a packaging systems firm.
Some suppliers are building more flexibility into their systems to allow packers a quicker changeover in case-ready product runs. Others are working to further automate their systems; still others are taking a total systems approach in addressing case-ready demand.
Rubbright says: "To make case-ready successful in the marketplace, you have to look at it from a total systems standpoint."
The packaging systems sales manager agrees. "We can take product trays and de-nest them; run the trays down line; automatically insert soaker pads; run the trays either through a standard conventional packaging situation or into lidding equipment, which pulls a vacuum and lids the meat after the gas has been flushed in," he stresses.
Choosing what technology to use is not as important as addressing several fundamental points, cautions Aaron Brody, managing director of Rubbright--Brody Inc., a consulting company focusing on food and packaging.
He says that maintaining sanitation and temperature control throughout case-ready processing and distribution is a must.
"You have to start controlling refrigeration temperatures," Brody advises packers. "Technologies won't work without temperature control. You're running temperatures at 38 degrees F, 40 degrees F and 45 degrees F.
"Companies successful in the [food] business-the Frank Perdues and Orval Kents-are delivering safe, quality products at 29 degrees F or 30 degrees F consistently throughout production and distribution," he notes.
The aforementioned marketing director of fresh red meat says of case-ready meat production: "It's a different production environment. Superior workmanship and maintaining quality-from packing to the meat case-is a must.
"Case-ready meat is at its best the minute a processor finishes it," he adds. "Temperature and sanitation throughout the [case-ready] process are even more critical. Anytime you take a sub-primal down to a portion, you expose more surface."
One packaging insider agrees with the systems approach, but cautions--a systems approach in the sense of consistent temperature throughout processing and distribution, a new look at cleanliness, maintaining freshness of product, and taking initial bacteria counts. "Quality assurance people are playing a key role in running case-ready programs," he stresses.
Case-ready operations require clean room environments, say several sources.
"Clean and cold," Brody adds. "First, processors need the right temperatures and infrastructure in position. Then they can start worrying about which packaging technology they want to use."
Pricing and information systems
In order for packers and retailers to understand what a case-ready program is worth, an analysis has to be taken all the way through the retail store-from the time product enters the store until it leaves.
"If packers and retailers stop the economic evaluation at the point of delivery-if they compare their sub-primal costs plus the cost of cutting it vs. their case-ready products-they won't have an apples-to apples comparison," says the marketing director of fresh red meat. "Additional shelf life has a value in reduced shrink; if retailers can stock the meat case more easily or quickly, that has a value in reduced out-of-stocks. If processors can figure out how to capture those values, they can compare what they're doing today vs. case-ready.
"I don't think the data exists to do that yet," he adds. "With our current retail information systems, we can't track a unit all the way through a retail operation."
But help is on the way.
The final key to unlocking the door to case-ready meat success is understanding the costs and how to price case-ready meat. And technologies are available to meet these ends.
"There's the factor of price-relationship," notes Ken Johnson, vice president of meat science for the National Live Stock and Meat Board. "Everything we're doing on value-based management addresses that point. It starts with the CARDS [Computer Assisted Retail Decision Support] program."
CARDS is a computer software package that puts the price-value relationship for closer-trimmed primals and sub-primals in quantifiable terms.
"The challenge we have now is not knowing the costs," Johnson points out. "The measure [for pricing case-ready] can't be on a percent gross. It must be on net profit."
The National Cattlemen's Association Cattlemen's College recently presented a session on value-based meat marketing systems. Session speakers explained that since the early 1980s, meat departments have been playing catch-up to departments with standard weight items.
Technological difficulties in developing equipment that could weigh random-weight products and code labels with proper information was the cause.
Today, major retailers are finally able to use scanning technologies to collect and analyze meat department data. When a meat label is scanned, the information gleaned through its Universal Product Code identifies the cut, how much it weighs, and how much it costs.
A well-organized store will have computers that report precisely accurate sales. But assessing the value of what comes in the back door is just as important as knowing the value of product being sold to consumers, the session pointed out.
Enter CARDS. The software program aids retailers in making purchasing decisions, especially in determining the value of closer-trimmed products; and helps retailers evaluate their labor costs and yield so they can compare the value of purchasing options among various suppliers.
Used in combination with scanner sales data, CARDS can pinpoint the most profitable product mix for retailers. Under previous operating systems, for example, retailers might prefer a 1-inch trim product because it was less expensive and the back-room trimming waste and labor costs were not factored into department profitability.
Through CARDS, a meat manager may find that a closer-trimmed primal or sub-primal, though initially more expensive per-pound, is actually more profitable.
"Case-ready would have no chance of success without CARDS," says Johnson. "While more expensive, closer-trimmed products have higher yields and reduce labor costs. CARDS helps show how to maintain a profit while passing value on to consumers."
Johnson adds that adopting a UCC/EAN 128 shipping-container, bar-code system will be key to the flow of-and maintaining intelligence on-case-ready meat throughout distribution.
"Now is the time to make the change [to UCC/EAN 128]," Johnson warns. "Retailers are starting to ask for it."