CHAMPAIGN, IL — The American Meat Science Association (AMSA) has announced that Dr. Tommy WheelerResearch Leader for the Meat Safety and Quality Research Unit at the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center, is the recipient of the 2013 Distinguished Research Award. The award was established in 1965 to recognize members with outstanding research contributions to the meat industry and is sponsored by ConAgra Foods, Inc. Dr. Wheeler will be honored at a special awards banquet at the AMSA 66th Reciprocal Meat Conference on Tuesday, June 18, 2013 in Auburn, AL.
Dr. Wheeler has played a leading role in team research that developed beef classification systems for on-line measurement of meat tenderness and carcass yield grade and marbling. Dr. Wheeler and his colleagues have developed the first, highly accurate beef tenderness classification system using slice shear force that is being used by a major beef processor and retailer to market a successful branded product line, demonstrated that consumers will pay a premium for guaranteed tender beef and that such a product could improve sales and consumer satisfaction with beef at retail stores.
Dr. Wheeler and his colleagues have developed the first accurate non-invasive tenderness prediction system. Their carcass yield grade and marbling system, based on image analysis of the 12th rib cross-section, has been implemented by virtually all of the major North American beef processing plants and should facilitate value-based marketing by providing an objective, more consistent basis for valuing carcasses.
Dr. Wheeler leads the carcass composition and meat quality aspects of the beef germplasm evaluation project that is recognized as the world’s leading source of information on beef breeds. This project has identified three tropically adapted breeds that do not have tougher meat, shown that one copy of the inactive myostatin gene improves both carcass yield and meat tenderness in all muscles, evaluated Wagyu and Scandinavian high-marbling breeds, and obtained an updated evaluation of the most commonly used breeds in the U.S. Dr. Wheeler has developed improved cooking and shearing protocols for shear force as a measure of meat tenderness and has served on committees to bring more standardization to tenderness measurements.
In addition, Dr. Wheeler has been a leading contributor to meat safety research projects that have established the importance of the hide as a source of carcass contamination, demonstrated the efficacy of hide interventions (dehairing, washing, and bromine treatment) to reduce the incidence of carcass contamination which have been widely adopted industry-wide.
Since 2007, Dr. Wheeler has been the Research Leader for the Meat Safety and Quality Research Unit. Leadership provided by Dr. Wheeler focused the meat quality and food safety research programs on high priority national problems. Dr. Wheeler has employed a leadership style that has maintained the high level of productivity in the scientists performing at the highest level and increased the productivity of underperforming scientists while expanding the Unit’s list of industry stakeholders and collaborators.
Dr. Wheeler, who also received the AMSA Signal Service Award in 2012 and the AMSA Achievement Award in 1996, is an internationally recognized expert on those topics and has been an invited speaker at numerous conferences and symposia. He is frequently consulted by various industry segments requesting research to solve a problem or assistance implementing his research results. Dr. Wheeler has authored or co-authored 140 refereed journal publications and chapters for two books, 105 abstracts and 76 technical reports.
Dr. Tommy Wheeler was nominated by Dr. Jeffrey Savell, Texas A&M University, who stated that “In addition to his vast research contributions in the area of meat safety over a relatively short period of time, Dr. Wheeler has also gained international recognition as an expert on various aspects of meat tenderness and breed characterization.”
AMSA fosters community and professional development among individuals who create and apply science to efficiently provide safe and high quality meat defined as red meat (beef, pork and lamb), poultry, fish/seafood and meat from other managed species
Source: The American Meat Science Association (AMSA)