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Meat Science
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1999 National Beef Tenderness Survey |
| The 1999 National Beef Tenderness Survey was commissioned to evaluate the industry for progress made in tenderness following the findings of the 1990 Survey. Unlike the first study, the 1999 version was expanded to include products from foodservice facilities in order to fully characterize the state of beef tenderness throughout the industry. |
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2005 National Beef Market Basket Survey |
| Results of the 2005 survey to determine the present state of the composition of raw beef in retail throughout the United States and compare data acquired through this project with that shown in the National Nutrient Data Bank and Agriculture Handbook 8-13 in order to assess appropriate revisions. |
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2005 National Beef Tenderness Survey |
| In 2005, The Beef Checkoff commissioned a follow-up study to the 1990 and 1999 Surveys to quantify continuing progress made by the beef industry to improve tenderness. |
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Agricultural Marketing Services - Meat Grading |
| AMS’ quality grade standards, grading, certification, auditing, inspection, and laboratory analysis are voluntary tools that industry can use to help promote and communicate quality and wholesomeness to consumers. Industry pays for these services and since they are voluntary, their widespread use by industry indicates they are valuable tools in helping market their products. The MGC branch uses university-researched, USDA-developed, and industry recognized standards. Grading determines the quality and yield of carcasses. Quality grades vary depending on the species. |
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American Association of Meat Processors |
| The American Association of Meat Processors (AAMP), is North America's largest meat trade organization. The AAMP membership has been bringing safe, wholesome, and quality meats and foods to America's tables since 1939. Membership includes more than 1,700 medium-sized and smaller meat, poultry and food businesses: slaughterers, packers, processors, wholesalers, in-home food service business, retailers, deli and catering operators, and industry suppliers. |
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American Meat Institute |
| AMI is a national trade association that represents companies that process 95 percent of red meat and 70 percent of turkey in the US and their suppliers throughout America. Headquartered in metropolitan Washington, DC, AMI keeps its fingers on the pulse of legislation, regulation and media activity that impacts the meat and poultry industry and provides rapid updates and analyses to its members to help them stay informed. In addition, AMI conducts scientific research through its Foundation designed to help meat and poultry companies improve their plants and their products. The Institute's many meetings and educational seminars also provide excellent networking and information-sharing opportunities for members of the industry. |
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American Meat Science Association |
| AMSA is a broad-reaching organization of individuals that develops and disseminates its collective food and animal science knowledge to provide meat science education and professional development. |
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AMI Foundation |
| The American Meat Institute Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to research, education and information projects that benefit the meat and poultry industry, their customers and consumers. Originally created in 1944, the AMI Foundation today solicits grants from government, industry and other organizations to fund a broad range of food safety, worker safety, nutrition and consumer information projects. |
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Beef Cutout Calculator Fact Sheet |
| The cutout strategy illustrated in this fact sheet was based upon the expected subprimal yields of an average beef animal. The HCW was calculated at 62.5%, the industry accepted dressing percentage for a typical beef animal harvested in the United States. The charts included in this fact sheet are intended to highlight the strengths of the cutout calculator as it relates to its ability to estimate subprimal yields. |
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Beef Decontamination Technologies |
| Beef carcasses, which are initially sterile, become contaminated with bacterial pathogens via transmission of organisms from the exterior of the live animal, and/or from the environment, to the product surface. Extensive contamination, or abusive conditions that allow bacteria to reproduce, increase risk for presence of pathogenic bacteria and formation of toxins in food. |
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Beef Grading |
| The grade of a beef cut sold at retail can be an important selection factor for many consumers. Likewise, the grade of a beef carcass is critical to the beef producer, since the dollar value received is directly dependent upon the grade. Yet consumers and producers alike often are confused as to what grades mean, and how they are determined. |
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Beef Packaging |
| Fresh beef accounts for approximately 4 billion pounds and $15 billion in sales annually. Because the beef industry serves many markets, numerous demands are placed on the manufacture, distribution, sales and marketing of beef products to multiple segments of the food industry. To supply safe, high quality fresh products to its customers, the beef industry utilizes a range of packaging technologies. Beef packages must perform several functions. Packages must protect against contamination and deterioration, provide product visibility, and display label information. Packages also serve a merchandising function and must be appealing to consumers. |
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Beef Production Industry |
| A video overview, in English and Spanish, of the beef production industry from cow calf production, feedlot production, and processing to the consumer. Information about product safety and quality is also provided. |
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Beef Value-Added Cuts |
| Beef Value-Added Cuts are a recently developed line of beef cuts taken from the underutilized chuck and round. The line consists of steaks and roasts that help meat processors, manufacturers, retailers, foodservice operators and cattle producers improve overall profitability while supplying more options to their customers. They allow consumers to enjoy more great tasting steaks and roasts that are easy to prepare and often moderately priced. |
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Beef...from Farm to Table |
| This fact sheet, from the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service, answers potential consumer questions about beef. Questions answered include questions about production, inspection, grading, aging, labeling, and food safety. |
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Bovine Myology and Muscle Profiling |
| This site, from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, provides information in English, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Russian about bovine myology and muscle profiling. |
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Carcass Merit Project: Finding Live Animal Traits for Better Beef |
| While post-mortem technology alone could reduce the tenderness failure rate of top sirloin steaks to 18 percent, selective breeding with the top 25 percent of sires with desirable carcass traits combined with post-mortem technology could reduce the failure rate to 5 percent. |
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Chemistry of Beef Flavor |
| Beef flavor results from a myriad of compounds present in varying proportions that are affected by the precursor compounds available. This may depend on the breed of cattle and their diet, post-mortem changes, the muscle in which changes are occurring, addition of ingredients, storage conditions, heat treatment and postheating storage. Development of meaty, beefy flavor may be accompanied by development of a variety of off-flavors because many of the same precursor compounds are in both flavor groups. Impacting flavor requires control of all these various facets of flavor development. |
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Comparative Analysis of the Evolution of the Three Major U.S. Meat Industries |
| The structures of the U.S. livestock and poultry industries have undergone dramatic change in recent years. While the physical dimensions of structural change are observed in the reduced number and increased size of today’s firms, equally interesting are changes in the business arrangements used in these industries. Formal means of vertical coordination have significantly changed the way many producers conduct business with up- and downstream firms. |
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Dark, Firm and Dry Beef |
| Darkcutting beef is most often known as dark, firm, and dry (DFD). DFD beef can also be called “high pH” beef as a result of an animal’s depleted muscle glycogen reserves prior to slaughter. The carbohydrate (sugar) glycogen is used as an energy source for muscle contraction and relaxation. Lactic acid is a by-product of glycogen utilization by the muscle when energy is produced in a stress event. After death, lactic acid accumulation in the meat is responsible for the pH decline from 7.0 to about 5.7 (Figure 2) during normal rigor mortis development. |
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Does Vitamin D3 Improve Beef Tenderness? |
| The most recent National Beef Quality Audit estimated that the inconsistencies associated with beef tenderness potentially cost the U.S. beef industry approximately $250 million annually. According to the National Beef Tenderness Survey conducted in 1998 (Brooks et al., 2000), a great deal of tenderness improvement needs to be focused on retail cuts originating from the round. With these findings in mind, research scientists have focused their attention on developing innovative nutrition, management, or product processing technologies that address this issue. |
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Dr. Temple Grandin's Web Page |
| A webpage that provides links to articles authored by Dr. Temple Grandin. Dr. Grandin has researched livestock behaviour during handling and transport, humane slaughter, the design of facilities and restraining systems. |
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Dry Aging of Beef |
| Dry aging beef to enhance its flavor and tenderness is used by a very small number of meat purveyors for upscale hotels and restaurants and by an even smaller number of retailers for the gourmet market. Dry aging is a process whereby beef carcasses, primals, and/or subprimals are stored – without protective packaging – at refrigeration temperatures for one to five weeks to allow the natural enzymatic and biochemical processes that result in improved tenderness and the development of the unique flavor that can only be described as “dry-aged beef.” |
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Enhancement of the Nutritional Value and Eating Quality of Beef |
| Consumer interest in the nutritional aspects of health has increased interest in developing methods to manipulate the fatty acid composition of ruminant products. Ruminant meats such as beef and lamb are often criticised by nutritionists for having high amounts of saturated fatty acids (S) and low polyunsaturated fatty acids (P). The P:S ratio in beef is approximately 0.1,the ideal being about 0.4.This project is part of a larger EU-supported project entitled Healthy Beef (Enhancing the content of beneficial fatty acids in beef and improving meat quality for the consumer:QLRT-CT-2000-31423).
This document is also available to download in PDF format (134 KB). |
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Evaluating consumer acceptability and willingness to pay for various beef chuck muscles |
| In-home consumer steak evaluations, followed by centralized laboratory-setting auctions, were used to determine consumer (n = 74 consumers) acceptability and willingness to pay for various beef chuck muscles.Consumers received two steaks from each muscle for in-home evaluations of uncooked steak appearance and cooked steak palatability. After in-home evaluation of steaks, consumers participated in a random nth price auction session to determine willingness to pay for those steaks. |
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Food Safety Inspection Service |
| The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is the public health agency in the U.S. Department of Agriculture responsible for ensuring that the nation's commercial supply of meat, poultry, and egg products is safe, wholesome, and correctly labeled and packaged. |
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Fresh Beef Marketing Opportunities due to Dietary Vitamin E |
| The connection between general oxidative processes and the oxidation of oxymyoglobin in beef has been appreciated for a long time. Rancidity in lipids is due to the formation of fatty acid oxidation products, and the correlation between the oxidative processes involved with rancidity and discoloration is well-known. |
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Industry Guide for Beef Aging |
| Postmortem aging is a critical management practice that can improve the consistency of beef tenderness; however, the two most recent National Beef Tenderness Surveys revealed variability in length of postmortem aging time of beef cuts. |
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Interactive Beef Cutout Calculator |
| The Beef Cutout Calculator is intended to assist cattlemen by providing an estimate of expected subprimal yields and their approximate values. This tool allows cattlemen to select cutout strategies and trim levels for individual animals carcasses in order to predict product yields. |
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Iridescence: A rainbow of colors, causes, and concerns |
| Meat purchasing decisions are influenced by product appearance more than any other quality factor because consumers interpret color as an indicator of product wholesomeness. While discoloration is commonly associated with the formation of metmyoglobin due to pigment oxidation, iridescence also can negatively impact consumer satisfaction because it is often misinterpreted as indicating the presence of chemical additives and/or microbial spoilage. |
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Irradiation: Consumer Perceptions |
| Irradiation is a promising food safety technology that can reduce pathogens in foods. Irradiation and its effects on food, animals and the people eating irradiated foods have been studied extensively for more than 40 years and has been proven safe and effective. Irradiated wheat flour, potatoes
and spices have been available for more than 15 years. |
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Meat Inspection Overview |
| The safety of meat products and the protection of public health are primary concerns for the beef industry. Throughout the past few years and even today, there are many food safety challenges facing the industry. The industry has completed and is currently conducting research, identifying new and improved technologies, and exploring all opportunities to strengthen the safety of today’s meat supply. |
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Meatingplace.com |
| Meatingplace.com is an on-line community for red meat and poultry processors in North America. Membership is FREE. Meatingplace.com is published by the Marketing & Technology Group. |
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Missouri Beef Resource Guide - End Product |
| It is important for the beef industry understand the basics of the end product as it is an important part of the whole beef value chain. Learning more about beef cattle evaluation, livestock grading and market-based selling programs will help to produce a beef product that will satisfy consumers' expectations and enhance your bottom-line selling prices. |
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National Beef Instrument Assessment Plan II Meeting Summary |
| The National Cattlemen's Beef Association brought together a
group of industry professionals who represented all segments
of the beef production chain as well as company representatives from the processing, retail and foodservice
sectors to address this challenge. This group was given the task of developing an action plan to address the one attribute that consumers most associate with eating quality- tenderness. |
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National Beef Instrument Assessment Plan III Meeting Summary |
| This group was assigned the task of developing research and implementation strategies for beef instrumentation technology over the next five years. This summary is a compilation of the reviews provided by meeting attendees. It addresses the current state of technologies related to instrument grading of beef carcasses and ongoing research related to using instruments to predict beef tenderness. |
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National Meat Association |
| The National Meat Association is committed to safe food, high-quality production, excellent service and supplies. Everyone related to the meat industry has something to benefit from the NMA. Packers, processors and others with grants of inspection utilize the regulatory and technical assistance, as well as HACCP support and education, provided by NMA’s regulatory arm. Equipment manufacturers benefit from the contacts, advertising and excitement generated by the association and its tradeshow, MEATXPO. |
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Non-Conforming Beef Research Summit Summary |
| One of the major problems facing the beef industry is the number of cattle, carcasses, and cuts that miss the broad targets of the marketplace and thus cost millions of dollars in lost revenue each year. The checkoff-funded National Beef Quality Audits have provided detailed accounts of these problems, which have been termed
as “non-conformities.” |
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Non-Conforming Beef Strategy Summit |
| The checkoff-funded 2005 National Beef Quality Audit identified beef carcass ‘nonconformities’ that result in quality challenges for the beef industry. These challenges include heavy weight carcasses, yield grade 4s and 5s, low quality grade carcasses and dark cutting carcasses. The Product Enhancement research program is attempting to provide information to support potential mitigation strategies for these ‘nonconformities’ through checkoff-funded research and by encouraging industry dialogue.
A Non-Conforming Beef Strategy Summit was hosted in June of 2007 at Texas A&M University with funding support from The Beef Checkoff to bring together industry professionals to discuss this specific topic. Visit the link below to view presentations from the summit and check back soon for a full meeting summary. |
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Post-Harvest Practices for Enhancing Beef Tenderness |
| The components of “taste” that determine the “overall palatability” of beef are flavor, juiciness and tenderness. Tenderness has been identified as the primary determinant of eating satisfaction among U.S. beef consumers, or equal to that of flavor. Includes an extensive bibliography. |
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Pre-Harvest Cattle Management Practices for Enhancing Beef Tenderness |
| Pre-harvest management of beef tenderness has become an important topic in today’s cattle industry due to the fact that tenderness is the primary determinant of eating satisfaction among beef consumers and because structural changes in the beef industry have resulted in greater vertical coordination of production, processing, and marketing activities, making it feasible to manage product attributes along the entire beef chain. |
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U. S. Meat Export Federation |
| The U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) is a nonprofit trade association working to create new opportunities and develop existing international markets for U.S. beef, pork, lamb and veal. The site provides information regarding animal health and meat nutrition, world economic trade analysis and data, as well as multi-language international meat manuals. USDA and other government regulations for meat plant safety and quality control are also available along with scientific research papers from government, university and industry experts on meat producing, trading, processing and packing. |
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Worker Safety |
| Designed to share knowledge throughout the industry and in the public area to encourage further safety enhancement, workersafety.org is the online worker safety resource for the meat and poultry industry, as well as for policymakers, reporters and consumers who may have questions about workplace safety throughout the industry. |
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