Meats

Steps in the Meat Production Process

• 1) Animal is delivered

• 2) Inspection & Slaughter

  • Antemortem Inspection

    • Make sure that the animal is not Dead, Dying, Diseased, or Disabled

    • Animal will be passed, retained, or condemned

    • No downers

    • Additional testing may be required

    • Minimize stress as much as possible

  • Slaughter

    • Stunning using electricity, CO2, or a Bolt Gun

      • Renders the animal insensible to pain

      • Kosher and Halal methods are exempt

    • Afterwards a visual and physical inspection occurs

      • Carcass, head, organs, lymphatic system

      • Looking for disease

    • No contamination on carcass

    • Test for pathogens, antibiotics, and banned substances

    • Inspection continues through whole process

• 3) Dressing Percent

  • (Hot Carcass Weight/Live Weight)x100

    • Average Dressing Percentages

      • Hogs-72%

      • Cattle-63%

      • Sheep-50%

• 4) Grading

  • Standardized method that facilitates the Industry’s Marketing System from…..

    • Producer → Retailer → Consumer

  • Serves as a common language so buyers and sellers can be equally informed and knowledgeable

  • Gives definition to animals, carcasses, and wholesale/retail cuts

• 5) Fabrication

  • Carcass → Side → Quarter → Primal → Subprimal → Retail

Beef Quality Grade

• Prime → Choice → Select → Commercial → Utility → Cutter

  • Determined by maturity and intramuscular fat (marbling)

• Quality Grade is the expected palatability

• Carcass Attributes

  • Yield Grade: numerical representation of the expected cutability or yield of boneless closely trimmed retail cuts from the round, loin, rib, and chuck (beef) or leg, loin, rack, shoulder (lamb)

    • HCW: Hot Carcass Weight, pounds

    • REA: Ribeye Area, sq inches

    • FOE: Fat Over Eye, inches

    • KPH: Kidney, Pelvic, and Heart Fat, percent

  • YG= 2.5 + (2.5 x FOE) + (.2 x KPH) + (0.0038 x HCW) - (0.32 x REA)

    • Round the whole number, does not round up or down, just use the whole number

USDA Yield Grade: The classification system used by the USDA to evaluate the yield of meat from a carcass, which is determined by factors such as fat thickness and muscle conformation.

• Based on a ratio of lean to fat

  • YG1: at least 52.3%

    • Best

  • YG2: 50.0-52.3%

  • YG3: 47.7-50.0%

  • YG4: 45.4-47.7%

  • YG5: less than 45.4%

    • Worst

Pork Attributes

• Yield or Cutability or %FFL

  • 10th rib fat thickness

  • Hot carcass weight

  • Loin eye measurement

  • % lean = (2+(Carcass WT x 0.45 + (LEA x 5) - (Fat Depth x 11)) / HCW

• Quality

  • Color/Weep-PSE

    • How much fluid it loses in cooler

  • Belly Thickness

Pale, Soft, and Exudative (PSE)

• Short-term stress

• High or “Violent” stress prior to slaughter

• Large amount of acid (lactic) in muscle

• Rapid drop in muscle pH

• Pork and Poultry most susceptible

Dark, Firm, and Dry (DFD)

• Long-term stress-issue in beef

  • Excitable animals, long haul, adverse weather

• High pH, no glycogen (muscle sugar)

• Traps water in muscle

Value-Added Products in Retail

• The pork industry has traditionally sold several processed value-added products (e.g. bacon, ham, and sausage)

• Some of the fresh pork products are now marketed as case-ready, value added pork products

• Pork industry efforts have focused on increased product quality and consistency in these case-ready products

• Beef is primarily marketed in fresh form from the retail meat case

• New Product Development

  • Tied closely to value-added products

  • Studies show that product differentiation allows firms to price products differently and receive premium prices for perceived or actual product differences from target market segments