Meat & Poultry

Using state-of-the art genomics to predict whether a piece of beef will be tender enough may sound excessive. Until now, the meat industry has been using low-tech methods to assess beef quality, based on carcass weight, hanging method and pattern of muscle fat stripes, also known as marbling. However, traditional approaches may lack competitiveness at an industrial scale. "The meat industry needs more precise and consistent ways to predict the quality of beef before it reaches the shelves," Geraldine Duffy, said. She is the Head of food safety at the Teagasc Food Research Centre in Dublin, Ireland, who coordinates the EU-funded project Prosafe Beef. …

Beginning Nov. 1 through Dec. 31, 2012, a veal retail promotion has been formed in partnership with the beef checkoff and Casillero del Diablo Brand Spanish Wines, the largest marketer of Spanish wines in America, the California Milk Marketing Board and Classico Sauces. …

An affiliate of Blue Ash-based Empire Marketing Strategies Inc. has acquired 21 acres in Mason for about $820,000, the Cincinnati Business Courier reports. Mason Processing LLC plans to construct a meat-processing plant that could create 200 jobs. …

In a move designed to help take the pressure off British farmers following rising feed prices, the retailer will create two new groups, run by committees of farmers, which will guarantee beef farmers an above market price for their meat and a price linked to the cost of feed for pork farmers. …

The co-owners of a new chicken processing plant in northwest New Brunswick say the plant’s pending opening is already bringing an end to the long-standing so-called chicken war in the area. The Sunnymel plant in Clair, near Edmundston, is co-owned by Groupe Westco, a group of chicken farmers in Madawaska County, and by Olymel, a Quebec processing company. …