When it comes to trying to design the perfect steak, chicken is the enemy.
At the very least, it is the competition.
“We do have a problem with inconsistency in product and what has really hurt, is the phenomenal success of the competing animal protein products such as poultry,” Texas A and M university meat scientist David Lunt said. “They have done a marvellous job of marketing and production.”
Since beef is a food luxury rather than a necessity, confronting such successful competition is a problem for the industry.
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Declaring chicken the enemy in the war for the tight consumer dollar has prompted research on an international scale.
The industry already can effectively measure fat thickness, rib-eye area and weight, but subjective qualities of tenderness, palatability and marbling are harder to pin down.
No ultimate gene
It appears these measures of quality are not easily correlated to any one set of genes that could be made dominant through purebred selection and culling.
The search for the answers is a multimillion dollar affair.
With industry money and $3 million in federal funds over three years, meat research has two prongs.
The first is directed at bringing efficiency and cost savings through automation at the packer end, said David Proulx of the Canadian Meat Council.
The second deals with quality issues of food safety and tenderness studies.
“You have to be able to measure it before you can do anything to manage it,” he said. “If you can’t measure a tough carcass or a tender carcass, then how can you do anything through breeding or management that’s going to improve tenderness?”
To bring overall improvement, linkages are necessary from the pasture to the retailer. All players in the meat chain must be willing to aim for higher quality.
However, the industry needs the promise of increased profits if it is to invest in new breeding programs, grading machines or tenderness probes, said Proulx.
“If there is no mechanism to pay a premium for tender carcasses …then there is no advantage whatsoever to the packer to introduce the technology,” said Proulx. “The whole market system has to be geared to allow the correct incentives to work their magic.”
For Dennis Laycraft, the incentive is the prospect of increased sales.
Persuading the industry to adopt a program of guaranteed tender meat is definitely a marketing advantage for Canada, said the executive vice-president of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association.
Quality Improvement Plan
The Canadian Cattlemen’s Association has set five goals as part of an overall quality improvement plan:
- Ensure 95 percent customer satisfaction.
- Establish individual animal assessment systems.
- Provide a uniform and predictable cattle supply to reduce seasonality of weight and marbling.
- Pasture to plate “better than competitor” quality as assurance and food safety systems.
- Improve image of Canadian beef product at all levels.
