It was a joke with a bite to it. An American meat packing industry executive, after wrestling for awhile with a tough Alberta steak, made a crack about the “strength” of Canadian cattle genetics.
Canadian industry leaders at the table considered it no laughing matter.
They know that many consumers find the beef they buy too tough, too dry or too tasteless. They know that a
dissatisfied customer has other meats to turn to, particularly poultry.
And they know the future of the Canadian cattle and beef industries depends on being able to provide a product that consumers like.
Read Also
VIDEO: British company Antler Bio brings epigenetics to dairy farms
British company Antler Bio is bringing epigenetics to dairy farms using blood tests help tie how management is meeting the genetic potential of the animals.
The result of this knowledge is a concentrated industry campaign to find out why so much beef is sub-standard and how the problem can be corrected.
From the farm to the packer, from the science lab to the records office, it is a multi- million dollar international campaign to find the formula for the consistently succulent steak.
In this special report, Western Producer Cagary-based correspondent Barbara Duckworth investigates the industry’s effort to improve its product.
After the American giant IBP bought Lakeside Packers at Brooks, Alta., last fall, the Canadians escorted their American colleagues to a celebratory beef dinner.
New York steaks were carefully selected from Alberta beef and grilled.
After considerable chewing, a member of the Iowa Beef Processors executive wrapped a biting comment in the more palatable cover of humor.
“I’ve heard an awful lot about the strength of the genetics of the Canadian herd. Man, you’ve made a believer out of me.”
- o *
For Lakeside’s management team, those tough steaks made for an embarrassing evening.
While tough meat isn’t life threatening, it is bad for business. Inconsistency in beef quality is a problem the industry wants to solve.
“If you’re selling something that’s not essential to life, it’d better be good or consumers will spend their discretionary money on some other pleasure,” meat scientist David Lunt from Texas A and M University warned.
It is a challenge the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, Canadian Meat Council and Beef Information Centre are accepting. They are teaming up with scientists and some very modern scientific techniques to try to respond.
At stake, they believe, are hundreds of millions of dollars worth of sales in both domestic and export markets.
They have settled on an ambitious goal of 95 percent customer satisfaction, compared to the 70 percent consumer acceptance rate found in some surveys.
CCA’s executive vice-president Dennis Laycraft believes this is an attainable goal, from the embryo to the plate.
The rewards could be great.
If Canada can bring such improvement to its beef industry faster than anyone else, the marketing advantages in the export world would be astronomical, said Laycraft.
In fact, he dreams of Canadian beef becoming so good that it becomes the measure of quality against which other countries judge their product.
At home, it is a dollars and cents issue for the beef industry.
Extensive consumer surveys have indicated that as much as one-third of beef purchased in North America is considered unsatisfactory by the paying customer.
With that in mind, the Alberta Cattle Feeders Association and the Alberta Cattle Commission joined forces to organize a consumer panel to gauge local reaction.
In light of the growing concern about tenderness, the results were surprising.
Consumers on the panel suggested the average person who eats beef is more concerned about contamination than an occasional failure at the barbecue.
They were not inclined to point a finger at the cattle industry for an unacceptable product.
Selected at random, members of the group, who were not identified by name, said they eat beef because they already like it. When questioned about meat quality, they blamed themselves or the store if a piece of beef turns out dry and tough. Others said succulent meat is influenced by the way animals are raised.
Some panelists said animals living without stress in a natural environment and handled by a butcher produce better meat than feedlot-raised animals who are transported long distances to assembly line slaughterhouses.
Pat, a young man living alone, said a grocery store meat counter can be overwhelming. He likes meat but doesn’t know the difference between a round roast and rib steak.
“The consumer has to be educated as to what you can do with a piece of meat,” he said.
Debra, also single, said: “They should teach kids how to cook in grade school.”
Their worst fear was contaminated meat, hamburger disease and media reports about growth hormones and antibiotics that could harm children.
