TheMeatSite Newsletter - 29 August 2012

TheMeatSite Weekly Newsletter

Wednesday 29th August 2012

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Welcome to this week's newsletter

Editorial: UK Industry Slammed over Desinewed Meat and Welfare Ads

A report from the EU's Food and Veterinary Office has slammed the UK food safety authorities for breaching the rules over mechanically separated meat.

The report, which followed an audit to evaluate the UK's official food safety control system in place governing the production and placing on the market of mechanically separated meat in March this year, says that the product category of desinewed meat is "non-existent in current EU legislation".

Desinewed meat is a low pressure method of removing scraps of meat from the bone that are left after traditional deboning and butchery methods.

The report concludes that the official controls implemented by the United Kingdom Competent Authorities do not guarantee that the EU requirements applicable to the production of mechanically separated meat are respected.

With increasing public awareness of animal welfare, research at the University of Reading suggests that people are willing to pay more for even a slight improvement in the wellbeing of the animals in their meals - but appear to favour cows and chickens over pigs.

Professor Richard Bennett, an agricultural economist who advises the UK government on animal welfare issues, is leading University of Reading research assessing the extent to which people want to improve the welfare of farm animals.

However, while some research indicated that consumers are willing to pay more for welfare friendly meat products, the Advertising Standards Authority in the UK has ordered BPEX and the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) not to use advertisements claiming that "Red Tractor Pork is High Welfare Pork" in their present form.

Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) and 206 members of the public, the majority of whom appeared to be supporters of CIWF, challenged whether the claim "Red Tractor Pork is High Welfare Pork" that appeared in three advertisements was misleading and could be substantiated.

Mick Sloyan, BPEX Director said: "We accept the opinion of the ASA regarding this small technicality. We will continue to promote the independently audited standards behind Red Tractor pork and pork products, including welfare, in a way that is absolutely clear to consumers."

This week is World Water Week - a week when governments, environmental organisations, industry and agriculture is turning its attention to the importance of this vital resource.

It is ironic and apposite that it is taking place at a time when the US in particular is experiencing one of the worst droughts it can remember and when once again parts of Eastern Europe have also been hit by drought to say nothing of the common regions for water shortage in Africa.

Part of the aim of this focus week is to turn attention on the regions where populations do not have supplies of safe water to drink and water for sanitation.

In Europe, Development Commissioner Andris Piebalgs said that water and sanitation is one of the four Millennium Development Goals being targeted with a cash injection of €266 million.

However, he added: "But water is not only vital for drinking and hygiene purposes, it is also key to agriculture. Worldwide, 70 per cent of water is used as irrigation water to grow food, for example, and in some developing countries, this figure increases to over 85 per cent. It's clear that access to water and food security are therefore closely interlinked.

Sustainable agriculture and food and nutrition security are at the top of the EU's long-term development cooperation agenda. We are determined to enhance our support to provide the three key requirements of water, energy and food.

Chris Harris

This Week's Feature Articles

We have 5 new features this week:

Antibiotic Residues in Sausage Meat Promote Pathogen Survival
Antibiotic residues in uncured pepperoni or salami meat are potent enough to weaken helpful bacteria that processors add to acidify the sausage to make it safe for consumption, according to a study to be published in mBio, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology.

Harnessing Technology to Pinpoint Foodborne Disease
Advances in molecular biology could revolutionise the way in which foodborne disease outbreaks are investigated, according to the Food Standards Agency, enabling faster and more accurate identification of the organisms responsible.

How Cold Chain Shifts Influence Pork and Poultry Shelf Life
A study by a group of German scientists has shown how higher temperature shifts severely change the potential shelf life for fresh pork and poultry products.

Impact of Scalding and Chilling Methods on Broiler Breast Fillets
Chilling methods in poultry processing plants have a greater impact on the quality of the poultry meat that the scalding methods.

China's Meat Industry Revolution
From a very limited ration of meat only for urban citizens to the world's largest meat-producing country, from a handful of processing facilities in major cities to thousands of modern meat packing and processing plants throughout the country.