MeatingPod

Drew Getty, vice president of environmental sustainability and government relations and chief compliance officer at Perdue Farms, provides insights into two greenhouse gas abatement programs the poultry processor launched and expanded within six months. The program with GreenGasUSA has reduced carbon emissions by 17%, representing the elimination of 4.5 million gallons of gasoline being consumed b...

Martin Bucknavage, senior food safety extension associate at the Penn State University Department of Food Science, discusses the latest advances he has seen in his role as a resource for meat companies and state regulators regarding food security and waste. His two decades of experience in the food industry allow him to provide unique perspectives on developments in food safety protocols. 

Bill Aimutis, director of the North Carolina Food Innovation Lab, brought a couple of decades’ experience in global innovation with Cargill to his position, so when he speaks on the best way to launch and grow an alt-meat (or any other kind of food) business, people listen. Aimutis shared his thoughts with Alt-Meat on how best to thrive in the rough economic waters now surrounding the alt-proteins...

Dr. Glenda Humiston,  vice president of the Agriculture and Natural Resources Department at the University of California, outlines the goals and plans for USDA’s Regional Food Business Centers. The $400-million program will involve establishing 12 facilities focused on the areas of food distribution from the processing level to the partnerships that help food to efficiently reach consumers. The ne...

Esteemed poultry scientist Dr. Christine Alvarado outlines the inherent challenges poultry processors face producing raw and cooked products when it comes to the inevitable pathogens that are present inside processing plants. She also notes the advances in cleaning processes and other equipment in plants and describes the status of regulatory agencies and their practices when it comes to ensuring...

Meghan Clancy, R&D Specialist at Standard Meat, outlines how her background in animal science helps promote communication and teamwork among R&D practitioners at this Texas-based multi-protein processing firm. Clancy also describes her team's focus on meeting the needs of customers looking for custom and specialized processing services in an attempt to stay up to date on changing indu...

What a difference two years makes. Design-build firm CRB Group is releasing its second Horizons report on infrastructure investment trends in the alternative proteins sector — its first was published in 2021 — and safe to say the “build it and they will come” approach is history. What remains is a more conservative, and sustainable, approach to ramping up production. CRB Group’s Tony Moses, a prod...

Dr. Jon Oatley, associate dean for research for the College of Veterinary Medicine and a professor at Washington State University discusses advances in gene-editing in livestock, a technique that alters an animal’s genetic code to focus on desired traits. His team recently received U.S. Food and Drug Administration investigational authorization to create food for humans from gene-edited pigs in a...

Dr. Bruce Stewart-Brown of Perdue Farms outlines the goals of a new partnership between Perdue, Cornell University and the University of Illinois that aims to study Campylobacter and Salmonella contamination at poultry processing plants. The collaboration is an extension of Perdue’s existing programs that use data collected from farm to processing facility to advance statistical analysis efforts,...

Dr. Jeff Sindelar, professor and Extension Meat Specialist in the Meat Science and Animal Biologics Discovery program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, explains how revamping research facilities are expanding the learning experience for meat science students. He also notes that these upgraded campus complexes are helping to drive new ways of thinking and planning for the next generation of R...

In Ep. 111, Elysabeth Alfano, CEO of VegTech Invest and founder of Plant Powered Consulting lays out for Alt-Meat the market-based reasons for long-term investing in the alt-meat supply chain. Hint: Those reasons stand on global trends that are already well underway. Alfano also explains why the years 2026 and 2032 will be especially important to the future of the industry. 

In Ep. 110, Dr. David Gerrard, professor and director of the School of Animal Sciences at Virginia Tech University discusses how today’s meat science students are starting their educational journeys better equipped to manage their training to become meat science professionals. He’ll also outline the current state of meat science school funding and how food safety has become what he describes as th...

In Ep. 109, Dongyi Wang, assistant professor of biological and agricultural engineering at the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, describes his role as principal investigator of a team of researchers that recently received two major grants. Their research will study automated systems that can manage poultry line tasks that normally must be executed by human workers. The team al...

In this episode, Manpreet Singh, department head and professor of the Food Science & Technology department at the College of Agricultural & Environmental Sciences at the University of Georgia discusses  research on evaluating best practices for Campylobacter and Salmonella reduction in poultry processing plants. Dr. Singh, a veteran in food safety, also will outline the work he and his stu...

An attaboy or -girl is always welcome, but it’s not the same as turning a profit and securing a deep-pocketed buyer. In this episode of MeatingPod, we discuss the pros and cons of business competitions and accelerators with Andrew Ive, founder and managing general partner of Big Idea Ventures. 

In this episode, Henrik Grothe of the Danish Technological Institute will outline the implementation of automated systems in meat processing facilities in Europe and elsewhere. He'll also explain why companies will need to become visionaries and think outside of the box in an industry  already focused on optimization of its processing operations. Grothe also will describe how algorithms, arti...

In this episode, Dr. Casey Owens, a professor at the University of Arkansas and a poultry processing specialist at the Dale Bumpers College of Agriculture, Food and Life Sciences, discusses how the trend toward larger birds because of improvement in growth performance and longer growth cycles have led to some meat quality issues. She also outlines the use of automation and artificial intelligence...

In this episode, Dr. Reshani Senevirathne of Godshall’s Quality Meats outlines how her R&D team recovered from recent challenges caused by COVID-19 and supply chain issues. She also noted how utilization of the company’s state-of-the-art R&D and Culinary facility produces enhancements for the family-owned company’s specialty meat processing business. Dr. Senevirathne also discusses the pac...

Two years ago MeatingPod spoke with Kevin Ryan, anthropologist and food scientist, about the state of the alternative meat industry. A lot has changed since then. Ryan is back for a follow-up conversation about where the industry and consumers’ expectations for alt meat products are now and how he sees alt-meat technologies changing the food industry in the future.

In this episode, Kim Stackhouse-Lawson, professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University and director of AgNext, a research hub for ag sustainability discusses the program’s goal to help find solutions to feed 12.3 billion people by 2100. Dr. Stackhouse-Lawson previously served as director of sustainability at JBS USA, where she coordinated the processor’s North American sustainability pro...

In Ep. 101, Dr. Jada Thompson from the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture discusses what the spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) throughout 2022 is likely to mean to the structure of the poultry industry supply chain as well as to poultry production in the short and long term. She also will outline what the industry may see in 2023 in terms of feed and operational...

In this MeatingPod Vault session, Bill Folk, vice president of operations at Butterball LLC, discusses trends affecting turkey processing in the most-downloaded MeatingPod episode of 2022. Folk outlines where the poultry segment is going next in terms of efficiency-focused innovation to optimize processes and how the industry can address ongoing supply chain issues.

Cultivated meat may not yet be a consumer product in the United States, but that doesn’t mean that these factories of the future aren’t already being designed. In Episode 99, Sebastian Bohn looks into his crystal ball and describes for Alt-Meat Editor-in Chief Lisa Keefe what he sees as project manager and process engineer in the evolving industry of alternative protein production.

In this episode from the MeatingPod Vault, Jill Stuber of Catalyst LLC ­– a specialist in helping companies create roadmaps for a sustainable food safety culture ­– outlines strategies that help food manufacturers and retail organizations implement those objectives. Jill also discusses what she learned about the subject from her 14 years in Quality Assurance roles at Gold’n Plump and shares takeaw...

In this episode from the MeatingPod Vault, Maggie Smith , founder and owner of Viand Group LLC, a Tennessee-based consulting firm specializing in food safety and animal welfare, will discuss animal welfare audits, biosecurity and professional development in the meat and poultry industry. She’ll also outline why she advises that it is better to be a crockpot than a microwave!