1995 International Congress of Meat Science and Technology
A week's worth of meat marketing and science sessions cover a smorgasbord of issues
More than 1,400 meat scientists and allied professionals from around the world converged on San Antonio for one week last August to learn of research updates on top meat marketing and science issues, as well as to rekindle old friendships.
Four programs took place during the week. The National Live Stock and Meat Board Demand Strategies conference was held in conjunction with the Meat Board's last annual meeting before its expected merger into the National Cattlemen's Beef Association.
These events kicked off the 41st Annual International Congress of Meat Science and Technology (ICoMST). Hosted by the American Meat Science Association and Texas A&M University, ICoMST was held in conjunction with the AMSA Reciprocal Meat Conference.
Extremely detailed sessions and technical posters focused on a variety of topics such as global issues impacting demand for meat; effective meat marketing; maintaining and enhancing food safety; Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point initiatives; inspection reform; nutrition education; new product development-as well as microbiology; preservation and packaging; processing procedures and technologies; enhancing meat color and tenderness; and value-based marketing.
Value-based marketing
Sessions on value-based marketing systems captured attendees' interests. Professor John Forrest of Purdue University explained that the desire to improve the precision of the carcass evaluation process, give more consistent information upon which to base prices, and to provide better information to producers on animal composition has led to the development of new technology.
"Technologies that are currently in use [being tested or used in-plant for pork and/or beef] include optical fat/lean probes, electromagnetic scanning, ultrasound, and various forms of machine vision or video imaging," Forrest said.
He added that optical fat/lean probes have played a major role in the movement toward value-based marketing in the North American pork industry.
Electromagnetic scanning, which uses the conductivity differential between fat and lean tissue to measure total body electrical conductivity (ToBEC), has been used for two years in one pork plant and shows promise. However, hog carcasses currently must be removed by rail and placed horizontally to pass through the scanning chamber, and then manually placed back on the rail after scanning.
Lack of automation of this process has been a major deterrent to the adoption of this technology, according to Forrest.
"Research is underway to design a fully automatic conveyor system that will operate accurately at 1,000 scans an hour," he noted. "Only if this technology is successfully automated will there be widespread adoption by industry."
Others have indicated this technology could work well with beef, but in addition to further automating the process, a larger scanning tunnel would be required then currently exists.
Ultrasound utilizes sound waves that are far beyond the frequency that can be detected by the human ear. Three forms of ultrasound (real-time imaging, velocity of sound and digital-A-mode) are available for sensing compositional differences in carcasses and live animals non-invasively.
Digital-A-mode ultrasound utilizes a single pulse echo detector sensor head that is moved on a track to scan an area of the carcass instead of a multiple array, Forrest pointed out. This technology is in an advanced developmental stage, but is not ready for commercial testing.
Potential advantages include: the digital signal can be analyzed directly without the need for creating or analyzing an image; a single contact point is required per measurement vs. two precisely aligned points (as required in velocity of sound); and potential exists for placing two or three non-invasive sensors at different locations on the carcass using a robot to enhance prediction accuracy.
Real-time imaging is being used extensively for determining leanness in live animals, but it currently has limited application to carcass evaluation on high-speed pork and beef slaughter lines. This technology utilizes pulse-echo detector technology. Forrest said the most advanced form of ultrasound that may have future application to carcass evaluation is velocity of sound. This technology operates on the principle that ultrasound waves pass through muscle at a higher velocity than through fat.
By generating ultrasound waves and transmitting them through a sample and receiving them on the other side, one can determine the rate of travel of the wave. A major advantage of VOS technology is the elimination of images and image analysis.
He said only one machine vision system is known to be operating in a U.S. beef slaughter plant. This instrument reportedly estimates lean composition and evaluated marbling from an image of the loin cross-section.
The advent of sophisticated digital imaging techniques creates the potential for computerized image analysis from a range of imaging sources. Analysis of video images based on color and/or gray scale offers the potential for objective evaluation of traits that have been evaluated traditionally by vision on the basis of fatness and conformation.
"Currently, the only technology being utilized for evaluation of quality palatability factors appears to be machine vision," Forrest said. "Several investigations are being sponsored by the Meat Board and the National Pork Producers Council to further develop technology that will allow the early post-mortem detection of problems that might be associated with color or water holding capacity, and tenderness.
"Studies are also being conducted that would allow the on-line sorting of individual retail fresh meat cuts prior to packaging when done by a central distributor," he added.
Forrest concluded by saying although very little technology is being used for the objective measurement of quality attributes in meat products, considerable research and development activity is underway to find practical objective measures of meat quality.
James Lochner of IBP inc. said value-based marketing for beef will evolve rapidly as technology provides a system to predict, with some confidence, total value of the carcass.
"We must have this ability before we progress to the next step. I believe it is close at hand," he added. "Not all value differentials are reflected with carcass value. Some risks in total value will be shared by the packer and feeder as systems develop. We will likely see various forms of value-based marketing, depending upon how much risk either party is willing to assume and share.
"The future will be like the present with varying degrees of value-based marketing," he said. "It is unlikely one system will fit all parties' business style."
Beef's lost market share
Jack Maddux, a beef producer from Wauneta, Neb., lamented that the pork and poultry industries have taken 14 percent market share away from beef during the past 14 years.
"One of the reasons for this hemorrhaging of consumer dollars to other meats has been the death of value-based marketing systems in the beef industry," he cautioned. "We buy on the averages and sell on averages. There is currently no method of sending clear-cut price signals to producers about individual animals meeting the expectations and desires of consumers.
"It has been estimated that one, tough, tasteless carcass can result on more than 500 less-than-satisfactory beef-eating experiences," he added. "Couple this quality and consistency problem with widening price spreads to our competition and you have the essence of our 14 percent market share loss. Value-based marketing is an important key to solving this dilemma."
Maddux said the Beef Industry's Value-Based Marketing Task Force said excess fat is a detriment to the industry in terms of production costs and in meeting consumer demand.
"They estimate the cost of producing fat in excess of optimum is about $2 billion a year," he added. "That would go a long way in narrowing the price spreads to other meats that are so damaging to beef's share."
Maddux mentioned ammunition designed to fight the "War on Fat," such as the Computer Assisted Retail Decision Support (CARDS) software, which evaluates beef value at various trim levels. He added that this software has been distributed to packers and retailers who represent 90 percent of the boxed beef trade. The target for close-trim boxed beef to become the standard was 1995. At present, only 36 percent of all boxed beef is close trimmed.
Although strategic alliances demonstrate some inefficiencies to producers from a production and consumer acceptance point of view, they still amount to only very small steps in moving the beef industry toward a more consumer-driven production system.
Formula Based Pricing is where a formula is developed between packer and feeders of cattle to be priced on individual carcass specs (where cattle suppliers suffer price discounts on cattle that do not meet specs). This major step toward a value-based system has grown to be a major factor in the market place, he said.
"It has also caused substantial disagreement with the industry about price discovery," he added. "Those feeders that negotiate the live prices on which most formulas are based believe these captive supplies adversely affect their bargaining position each week. This dilemma is exacerbated by the dramatic rise in forward contracting of fed cattle to packers, usually based on the futures markets as a price basis.
"The primary driver of this trend has been risk management on the part of the feeder and assured cattle supply by packers," he noted. "Expansion of this marketing method has led to more captive supplies. These contracts usually have a set of minimum specifications with discounts for deviations."
Maddux added that the evolution of beef product specs to move industry towards a more consumer-friendly product is also controversial.
"Everyone is for more quality and consistency-'as long as it does not affect the way I do business,' " he added.
Technology such as electrostimulization, longer aging and other post-mortem treatments are currently available to deal with tough carcasses, he said.
"Identifying these outliers to be treated is a major hurdle we must cross," he added. "A chain speed method of determining which carcasses need additional treatment would immediately relieve this concern. Market signals of discounts to cover treatment costs would be almost instantaneous."
In a paper presented by William Fielding, then-president of Excel Corp., he stated that Excel views value-based marketing as a necessity for the beef industry to be competitive. (Fielding has since become president of ConAgra Red Meat Cos.)
"Instruments for assessing carcass value are essential to true-value based marketing," he said. "Excel has developed carcass tracking and vision grading to objectively evaluate how individual carcasses will perform in the packing plant. Producers can use the data generated by these systems to enhance genetic selection in their herds, thus better meeting market demands."
Fielding stated that Excel has been a long-time supporter of moving away from a system of cattle being sold for a pen average price and moving to a system where value is determined on individual carcass merits.
He also voiced his support of carcass tracking. "The need for carcass tracking goes beyond its applications for value-based marketing," he added. "Keeping track of individual carcasses aids in record-keeping, scheduling, production flows and inventory controls. It also augments the process of product trace-back. Today, carcass tracking is in place at all Excel beef facilities in North America, except for a cow slaughter and fabrication facility in Colorado."
Fielding said each carcass is attached to a trolley. Holes of different shapes (squares, triangles, circles) in different sequences represent alpha-numeric code numbers.
By using combinations of no more than eight holes a trolley, as many as 30,000 code numbers are available-which is more than enough for a modern meat plant.
As the trolley passes each data collection point, a strobe on the side of the trolley shoots light through the holes and goes to an electronic reader, which identifies the trolley and the carcass it carries. Carcass weight is automatically recorded into the plant information system at various points within the plant.
There are three data collection points: On the kill floor for hot carcass weight, at the grading stand, and just prior to going onto the fabrication floor.
Additional data are manually entered into the system for each carcass at the grading stand. This information includes quality grade, yield grade, house grade and whether there are any defects, such as dark cutters, bloodshot muscles and/or miss-split carcasses.
Vision grading goes beyond the subjective evaluation done at the grading stand by using a digitizing camera coupled with a computer to evaluate carcasses, Fielding said. Excel began testing vision grading at its plants in 1991. At present, two plants have the system on line with three others to follow.
Also known as Video Image Analysis, the system takes a picture of the loin-eye surface at the 12th rib, where the carcass is routinely quartered for traditional USDA grading. Factors measured with VIA are: rib eye area; fat thickness (external); marbling; fat area; lean area; percent fat area; percent lean area; and percent rib eye area.
"This picture is digitized by the camera, based on the difference between fat and muscle reflectance," Fielding said. "The computer then interprets the picture and determines total lean and total fat content. From this information and the carcass weight, the total red meat cut-out of each carcass is predicted."
The accuracy of this system outperforms any other current system, he added, with standard deviation of plus or minus seven pounds a side. The system "reads" the information on each carcass in a few seconds, making its application in high-speed, high-volume packing plants practical. There is still the one- to two-day wait while the carcass is chilling between the time of slaughter and grading.
"In combination, this delay and reliance on subjective grading had made some producers reluctant to trade 'on-the-rail,' " Fielding pointed out. "One next step may be the development of an instrument to grade the beef before chilling.
"If this could be done, it would facilitate the adoption of practices such as hot boning," he added. "In isolation, however, concerns about the one- to two-day wait appear minimal, especially when producers are comfortable with the objective data generated by visual grading and carcass tracking."
Excel is also working with Integrated Beef Technologies to link the data from the packing plant with information being generated in the feedlot. Last year, IBT collected data on about 5,000 head of cattle with known genetics (mainly Angus) to learn more about sorting cattle to determine the optimum time for sending certain ones to market.
"As each animal passes through a chute, it is weighed on a scale and the frame size is measured by camera," Fielding said. "The animal is identified-and the data matched to it-by a computer chip tagged to the ear. Data is collected at key points in the process, such as when the animal first enters the feedlot."
When the livestock reach the packing plant, additional data will be generated through carcass tracking and vision grading, he added. This information will help lend validity to conclusions and assumptions made from what is gathered at the feedlot.