Corbion Purac expands research capabilities

Corbion Purac, a global market leader in biobased meat and food ingredients, has announced the completion of its newly expanded research facility in Lenexa, Kan. Based at the company's North American headquarters, the new Corbion Purac expanded laboratory, covering over 10,000 square feet, will help the company to continue serving its clients with innovative solutions that secure food safety, extend shelf-life and improve sensory attributes and functional performance of a wide range of meat and culinary applications.
Led by an experienced team of meat scientists, culinary technologists and microbiologists, the new facility will primarily focus on supporting and partnering with customers in applying Corbion Purac's portfolio in their applications and evaluating the impact of the offered solutions on the sensory, functional and shelf-life properties of various foods, including ready to eat and fresh meats, sauces, dressings, refrigerated foods and prepared foods. The company will be conducting in-depth research in line with its meat and culinary strategy.
This area has seen a significant investment over the past few years, highlighting Corbion Purac's efforts in diversifying its preservation portfolio and bringing new and innovative solutions to the industry for food safety and shelf life. Further research activity will focus on microbiology, predictive modeling, and other areas as color stability, yield enhancement, texture and flavor optimization.
"Research excellence has always been one of our main priorities at Corbion and has played a key role in the company's growth over the past 80 years," said Saurabh Kumar, technical service manager at Corbion Purac, North America. "This expansion to our facilities further strengthens our in-house meat and food testing capabilities and demonstrates our commitment to our customers to develop the next generation of innovative meat and culinary ingredients."
Simone Bouman, meat and culinary director of business development, added: "The recent expansion marks the third upgrade of the applications center within the last six years, underwriting our commitment to our customers and our innovation strategy, and we will continue to expand research capabilities over the coming years to provide food manufacturers with the tools they need to respond to changing consumer demands. This will enable us to not only add value to our customers and the market, but also strengthens our position as market leader and go-to company for meat preservation and more."

US meat, poultry groups support Obama stance on TPP

Five meat and poultry organizations thanked President Barack Obama for the administration’s efforts in the ongoing Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations. A letter expressing the groups’ appreciation was sent to Obama and was signed by the American Meat Institute, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, National Chicken Council, North American Meat Association, and theUSA Poultry & Egg Export Council.
The letter, delivered late April 16, stated: “The undersigned organizations, representing United States meat and poultry producers and processors, applaud the strong stance your Administration has taken in negotiations with Japan on access to that nation’s market for U.S. meat and poultry exports. We appreciate that, in the latest round of talks in Tokyo on a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, your representatives did not capitulate to Japan’s continuing attempts to maintain protectionist barriers to our products.
“As you are well aware, the ramifications of giving in to Japan’s desires to protect their agricultural products go well beyond our sector. A bad precedent with Japan could lead to future TPP-acceding nations such as China demanding massive exemptions from tariff elimination in industrial and high-tech products. This would be a damaging outcome for a wide swath of our nation’s commerce, agricultural and otherwise.
“Thank you again for your strong stance in the ongoing TPP effort. We look forward to a positive outcome in your negotiations that we can enthusiastically support in the Congressional ratification process that will follow.”

Indiana creating new opportunity for small meat processors

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced on April 8 that Indiana has become the latest among a handful of states taking action to help provide new opportunities for small businesses processing meat and poultry.  Indiana has joined USDA's Cooperative Interstate Shipment Program, which gives certain selected small and very small state-inspected meat and poultry processors the option to ship meat and poultry products bearing an official USDA mark of inspection across state lines.
Indiana joins Ohio, North Dakota and Wisconsin in the voluntary shipment program designed to expand market opportunities for America's small meat and poultry producers and processors, strengthen state and local economies, and increase consumer access to safe, locally-produced food.
"This program plays an important role in expanding opportunities for local producers and small businesses, while also ensuring that a robust food safety inspection system is maintained to protect consumers," said Brian Ronholm, USDA acting undersecretary for food safety.
State-inspected establishments selected to participate in the program are required to comply with federal standards under the Federal Meat Inspection Act (FMIA) and the Poultry Products Inspection Act (PPIA). The facilities receive inspection services from state inspection personnel that have been trained in FMIA and PPIA requirements. The facilities are then allowed to sell and ship their products outside their home states. 
The Cooperative Interstate Shipment Program was established by the 2008 Farm Bill.  In 2011, USDA finalized regulations to allow state employees to administer federal regulations and use the USDA Mark of Inspection at selected establishments. Prior to instituting the program, state-inspected businesses did not have the opportunity to sell products outside their state.
The FSIS partnership with other USDA agencies through the Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food initiative provides a full range of services to more than 90 percent of the more than 6,200 federally inspected small or very small meat, poultry and egg processing plants.
Indiana state-inspected establishments interested in shipping interstate should contact the Indiana State Board of Animal Health. The USDA's Small Plant Help Desk provides small meat businesses with assistance in understanding regulatory requirements. The help desk can be reached between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. EST, Monday through Friday, at 1-877-FSISHelp (1-877-374-7435).

HKScan announces streamlining

Finland's HKScan has announced that is it centralizing all imports of externally sourced meats.
The change sees the integration of its fully owned subsidiary Annerstedt Flodin AB this month. The sales and marketing team of Annerstedt Flodin is being integrated with HKScan's sales and marketing, and Annerstedt Flodin's CEO Mikael Olsson will be responsible for leading and developing the group meat import function.
The company says that it favors domestically produced meat sourced from long-term suppliers in Finland, Sweden and Denmark or from the corporation's wholly-owned farms in Estonia. Additionally, a smaller volume of meat is imported from HKScan Group's slaughterhouses from other HKScan's home markets, and some meat is also imported from third-part suppliers.
Separately, HKScan has announced the sale of its 49 percent stake in the Swedish meat and meat processing business Nyhlens & Hugosons Chark AB to Alviksgarden Lantbruks AB. The sale price amounts to EUR 2.2 million (USD3 million) and forms part of HKScan's development program and strategy review in Sweden.

Zoetis acquires Advanced Food Technologies

Zoetis, a former business unit of Pfizer, has completed an agreement to purchase substantially all of the assets of Advanced Food Technologies, a company that provides innovative food safety and animal care products to meat and poultry processing customers. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
 The acquisition will allow Zoetis to integrate Advanced Food Technologies' products into its existing business and enter into a complementary space where it has not competed before in the food safety sector.
Advanced Food Technologies (AFT) is a privately owned, specialty chemical company for food processors. It provides post-harvest, food safety solutions and services in meat and poultry processing, along with offering hoof care products for the dairy industry. This acquisition adds new technology to the Zoetis portfolio of vaccines, medicines, diagnostics and genetics, and it underscores the company's commitment to helping its customers ensure a safe, sustainable food supply.
"This acquisition is a great addition to the diverse portfolio of products and services that we use to support our customers," said Clint Lewis, executive vice president and U.S. president for Zoetis.
"Zoetis has a long proven history of delivering innovative products for the production of healthy farm animals. With AFT's products, we will now provide proven food safety technologies in processing facilities for use after these animals are harvested."
"We are excited for the opportunity to leverage Zoetis' scale and reputation to further the reach and impact that the AFT products can have on the quality and safety of meat and poultry for consumers," said Denny Smithyman, president of Advanced Food Technologies.
With this acquisition, Zoetis now adds trusted brands such as Aftec 3000 (buffered hydrogen sulfate) and Hoof-Tec Complete to its portfolio. These products will allow Zoetis to provide greater support and solutions for meat processors and animal health customers.
Along with offering new products, Zoetis also will extend its service offerings for the food safety industry. New services include chemical dosing systems and application equipment designed to ensure maximum effectiveness and ease of use; training and hazard analysis and critical control points (HACCP) support for operators; quality assurance workers and maintenance personnel trained at start up; and integrated plant-wide food safety solutions for meat and poultry plants.
"As always, our customers can expect to benefit from the skill and expertise of our field teams; our variety of programs and services; our commitment to the research and development of new and innovative products; and our enduring support to help our customers achieve greater business productivity and long-term success," Lewis said.
As Zoetis begins the integration process, its highest priority is to maintain its commitment to customers and ensure uninterrupted service.

Forecast for 2013 poultry, red meat production higher

The 2013 forecast for total poultry and red meat production has increased from the previous month, reflecting greater broiler, turkey, beef and pork production, according to the United States Department of Agriculture's World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report, one of numerous USDA reports released at noontime January 11.
Broiler production forecast has increased as higher forecast broiler prices and lower forecast soybean meal prices are expected to enhance profitability. Hatchery data indicates higher than previously forecast production and bird weights have increased.
Turkey production looks to be higher, based on current hatchery data and projected lower soybean costs.
The agriculture department estimated hog producers plan to farrow one percent fewer sows during the first half of 2013, compared to in 2012. However, continued growth in pigs per litter in 2013 is expected to more than offset the decline of intended farrowings. Coupled with slightly higher expected carcass weights, the 2013 pork production forecast is raised from last month.
Beef production is raised from last month, but more details will be released when the USDA releases its cattle report February 1.

Global meat production, consumption curbed due to drought and disease

Global meat production rose to 297 million tons in 2011, an increase of 0.8 percent over 2010 levels, and is projected to reach 302 million tons by the end of 2012, according to new research conducted by the Worldwatch Institute's Nourishing the Planet project for the institute's Vital Signs Online service.
By comparison, meat production rose 2.6 percent in 2010 and has risen 20 percent since 2001. Record drought in the U.S. Midwest, animal disease outbreaks and rising prices of livestock feed all contributed to 2011 and 2012's lower rise in production, according to report authors Danielle Nierenberg and Laura Reynolds. Meat consumption also decreased slightly worldwide in 2011, from 42.5 kilograms per person in 2010 to 42.3 kilograms. Since 1995, however, per capita meat consumption has increased 15 percent overall; in developing countries, it increased 25 percent during this time, whereas in industrialized countries it increased just 2 percent.
Although the disparity between meat consumption in developing and industrialized countries is shrinking, it remains high, according to the report: the average person in a developing country ate 32.3 kilograms of meat in 2011, whereas in industrialized countries people ate 78.9 kilograms on average.
Pork was the most popular meat in 2011, accounting for 37 percent of both meat production and consumption, at 109 million tons. This was followed closely by poultry meat, with 101 million tons produced. Yet pork production decreased 0.8 percent from 2010, whereas poultry meat production rose 3 percent, making it likely that poultry will become the most-produced meat in the next few years, said the report.
Widespread and intense drought in China, Russia, the U.S. and the Horn of Africa contributed to lower meat production — and higher prices — in 2010 and 2011. The combination of high prices for meat products and outbreaks of new and recurring zoonotic diseases in 2011 curtailed global meat consumption. In 2011 alone, foot-and-mouth disease was detected in Paraguay, African swine fever in Russia, classical swine fever in Mexico and avian influenza (H5N1) throughout Asia.
According to a 2012 report by the International Livestock Research Institute, zoonoses cause around 2.7 million human deaths each year, and approximately 75 percent of all emerging infectious diseases now originate in animals or animal products. Many zoonotic disease outbreaks can be traced to concentrated animal feeding operations, which now account for 72 percent of poultry production, 43 percent of egg production and 55 percent of pork production worldwide.

Genetic imprinting has potential to improve nutritional efficiency of meat

"We have discovered that environmental influence turns on and turns off genes in animals. This has been found in animals, humans and multiple tests," explained Dr. Karl Dawson.

The revolution in genetics research in the past 10 years — specifically nutrigenomics or the study of the effects of foods and food constituents on gene expression — has the potential to make a tremendous impact on the future of meat production.
Dr. Karl Dawson, Alltech vice president and chief scientific officer of research, said at the opening session of Alltech’s 28th Annual International Symposium that while "we have always paid attention to genetics in the meat production industry, we have only used genetics to breed for improved productivity." The relatively new science of nutrigentics will allow meat producers to increase productivity and quality through the proper application of nutrition at specific stages in the animal's development.
In the last five years, researchers have discovered that what the mother is fed during pregnancy impacts the genomic outcome of the animal. "We have discovered that environmental influence turns on and turns off genes in animals. This has been found in animals, humans and multiple tests," explained Dawson. "There is a lifelong alteration in physiology associated with nutrition."
In the poultry industry, trials have been done using early stage nutrition that controls the feeding in the first 96 hours for the conditioning of birds' gene expression. Dawson says the early imprinted birds have totally different gene expression patterns than the control group.
"This makes permanent changes in what a bird is capable of doing," says Dawson. "This is not a genetic change, but an epigenomic change. We have imprinted the animal to improve the nutritional efficiency of the animal, and we are doing it all naturally, without drugs or hormones."
The nutritional revolution
Alltech then looked at what the food industry wants in chicken and beef and has developed feeding programs that will help deliver those characteristics in the finished product.
"We can significantly improve beef quality with improved tenderness and lower fat," said Dawson. "We can produce beef that is comparable to top-notch prime steak, but with the benefits of less fat, less shrinkage and less cooking loss."
Dawson said this all-natural feeding program reduces the pharmacological requirements that the industry has used in the past.
"Animal nutrition has changed in the last five years," said Dawson. "Nutritional programming is the true nutritional revolution."

FDA applies next-generation sequencing in Salmonella montevideo investigation

The Food and Drug Administration has reported that their scientists have successfully applied a new genome-sequencing assay to determine the source of an outbreak of Salmonella montevideo.
Approximately 300 consumers of processed meat products were affected in 44 states, with the peak of cases in November 2009. Next-generation sequencing on 35 samples of cold cuts identified the common origin of the outbreak to a single food plant and identified the vehicle, a spiced meat rub. The investigation, which was published in the Feb. 23, 2011, edition of the New England Journal of Medicine, demonstrated that the technique was superior to conventional pulse-field gel electrophoresis, which is less specific than NGS technology. The assay was able to eliminate other potential sources of infection which yielded an S. montevideo with an identical PFGE pattern.
The significance of this report is that the FDA is now equipped at a higher level to identify the origin of SE outbreaks with absolute precision. Additional information and the history of the outbreak updated can be assessed on the Centers for Disease Control website.

New legislation would toughen E. coli rules

Democratic New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand will introduce legislation mandating a zero tolerance for not only E. coli O157, but six other enterohemorrhagic E. coli strains. These other pathogenic strains are associated with produce and fruit in addition to meat products.
Identifying the other E. coli strains is difficult because there are no approved commercial immuno-based rapid kits available. It is estimated that the six rarer E. coli strains could together be responsible for as many cases of intestinal and renal disease as O157, with a combined prevalence of 0.2% of ground beef samples examined by USDA compared to 0.3% for O157.

Intensive agriculture in the cross hairs

A number of recent reports on government initiatives and press releases by activists opposed to intensive animal production are individually irritating but taken as a whole appear threatening. Some of the issues which have emerged since the advent of the new administration are clearly aimed at the most productive components of agriculture and appear to favor some idyllic pre-depression, family-farm mindset.
The new administrator of the Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration has indicated his intention to clarify the relevant sections of the Packers and Stockyard Act dealing with the principles of unfair, unjustly discriminatory and undue unreasonable preference or advantage to any person or geographic locality. This approach may relate to the current concerns of consolidation in the red meat industry and the traditional practices which are followed. It could also apply to the relationship between integrators and contractors producing broilers following industry cutbacks resulting in the inevitable retrenchment of growers.
An organization termed the Campaign for Family Farms and the Environment has demanded suspension of Farm Service Agency direct and guaranteed loans for hog and poultry facilities. These loans are in fact intended to make it possible for individual families to participate in the efficient production of hogs and poultry.
Restricting loans for new and more efficient housing will prevent entry of farmers into the production chain. Output will be limited and job opportunities in processing plants, feed mills and the allied industries will be lost. Consumers will inevitably pay more for their products and our competitive export situation will be sacrificed.
Who are the family farm organizations such as Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, Missouri Rural Crisis Center and the Land Stewardship Project of Minnesota? ... Read the full blog.

Increase needed in global meat output

World meat production will need to grow from a current level of 270 million metric tons per year to 470 million metric tons annually by 2050, to satisfy the rise in demand for food due to population growth and improving incomes.
So says the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). It plans an expert forum on food supply options, ahead of the UN World Summit on Food Security that will be held November 16-18, 2009, in Rome, Italy.
A new FAO discussion document quotes updated UN projections that the world’s human population in 2050 will have grown to 9.1 billion, compared with the 6.8 billion people living today. Nearly all the growth in population is expected to take place in the developing countries, which will account for 72% of all meat consumption — substantially up from their present share of 58%.
Another UN estimate is that the proportion of the world population living in towns or cities will rise from 49% to approximately 70%.