MeatsPad

In today's episode, Austin Egolf and Francisco Najar shared the microphone with Joerg Duepjan and Francois Desroches from Lallemand to describe the ideal conditions for fermented sausage production.  They discussed about the impact of acidification on the shelf-life, quality, and palatability traits of fermented meat products. Joerg also pointed out the main differences between Europe and the...

Today Francisco sits down with James Biondic, Vice President of Captive Bolt Stunning at FRONTMATEC Accles & Shelvoke, to explain the steps to select the most convenient stunner for each operation. He also highlights the importance of using the right grain or cartridge to extend the lifespan of each unit and achieve an efficient mechanical stunning.

On this episode, Francisco sits down with Dr. Melvin Hunt to talk about his legacy and the future of meat color research. Dr. Hunt provides valuable insights and information on meat color stability and the impact of postmortem age on meat color. He also addresses some common misconceptions and  points out how to effectively use a vaccum chamber to optimize the shelf-life and color-life o...

In today's episode, we meet with two meat industry leaders whose passion is to find the best use for all protein, to in return reduce food waste at the packer, processor and retail level.  To discuss about the current alternatives to prevent protein from ending in the landfill, we invited Billy Marcus and Shanna Motl from Marcus Technologies. Marcus Technologies created a platform that addres...

Why is Networking key these days for the meat industry?    To address various questions from our listenership, we met with Isel Tejeda Urenda, a young meat science student and owner of Tejeda Cattle, who has made her way into the industry at a young age.   Tejeda talks about her internship experience, at the same time giving us a clear example of the correct way to network which has...

In today's episode, we interview Dr. Barbara Masters and Dr. Mandy Carr Johnson about the history and future of beef safety. Our guests describe their roles in helping ensure food safety and how the Beef Industry Food Safety Council maintains a keen focus on progressing the excellence of beef safety in the United States. Meet our hosts: Dr. Barb Masters is the Vice President of Regulatory Policy,...

Dr. Robert Maddock is the Technical Assistance Officer at the American Meat Science Association. Some of the roles of Dr. Maddock are to assist new and expanding meat and poultry businesses with technical information and assistance.  Meat our guest: Rob received his B.S. in Animal Science at NDSU in 1995, a M.S. in muscle biology at NDSU in 1997, and a doctorate in Meat Science at Texas A&amp...

Today's episode features Drs. Stephan van Vliet Assistant Professor in Food Science at Utah State University and Jerrad Legako an Associate Professor in Meat Science at Texas Tech University. Our guests describe their current research and a broad overview of their studies in food science, as well as the composition of different foods and its interaction with meat.

Earlier this year, “the USA Poultry and Egg Export Council”, the National Association for Federally Inspected Meat Plants (ANETIF) in Mexico, in conjunction with the Department of Animal Science and Industry at Kansas State University, held the 8th Meat Processing Short Course in Manhattan, KS for meat industry professionals from Latin America.  The Illinois Soybean Association and the Kansas...

Rebecca Thistlethwaite from NMPAN is back on MeatsPad to review the last two years for small meat processors venturing into building new meat facilities. She also enlisted the most common pitfalls, from inspection to distribution channels, that processors face when starting a processing plant.

This week, we fly over to Spain to visit with Tomas Lopez from Viscofan. Tomas is an International Collagen Casing Expert in the global meat industry.  In this episode, Tomas covers the advantages of collagen casings in terms of production, efficiency, and palatability. We wrap up the interview with a general overview on vacuum stuffers and clippers used in the industry to optimize the qualit...

To provide our listenership authentic and genuine successful real stories happening in the U.S. Meat Industry nowadays, we travel to the heart of the Midwest to discover Hertzog Meat Co. This USDA inspected small meat plant, located in Butler, Missouri, opened in 2021 and is proudly providing high-quality American in the Kansas City area. We sat down with Todd Hertzog, owner of Hertzog Meat Co, to...

Continuing with our conversations at AAMP, we sat down with Dr. David Schafer, Professor Emeritus at Kansas State University. Dr. Schafer has been judging cured meat products for more than 50 years.   Meat our host: Dr. David Schafer grew up on a farm in Minnesota and had the privilege of working in the world's first meat laboratory. During his long career he has participated as an official j...

Today we are honored to welcome Dr. Terry Houser, an Associate Professor at Iowa State University and Smithfield Foods Chair in Meat Science Extension. Dr. Houser highlights the importance of the Weekly National Carlot Meat Report - USDA where meat processors and retail businesses can analyze current and historical meat prices.  He also explains the seasonality effect and the current work force di...

We continue our conversations with meat scientists during the 83rd AAMP show.  On this episode, we share our microphone with M.S. Derek Schroeder, a Kill Floor and Meat Processing Specialist at Ultrasource.  Many small and even large meat processing facilities are adapting the use of low pressure systems in ground beef patty forming lines.  Derek dives into the advantages when proce...

In today's episode, Alex Freeman, CEO of SmartLocker and owner of Agriculture Grant Solutions, joins us at the American Association of Meat Processors 2022 Convention in Des Moines, Iowa to break down the available funding programs to support small and mid-sized meat processors in the U.S. Agriculture Grant Solutions, a meat processor assistance program, was created by Alex to support our local pr...

Why is Sustainability key these days for the meat industry?  To address various questions from our listenership, we met with Dr. Kim Stackhouse, Director of AGNEXT, a catalyst between academic research and industry innovation focused on sustainability. She’s also an Animal Science Professor at Colorado State University and discusses the vision of AGNEXT and how this organization brings individuals...

For our last interview at RMC 2022, we invited Dr. Chris Calkins to learn about his new ventures, including the Nebraska Beef project where he travels the world teaching about meat quality, meat processing and the uniqueness of beef from Nebraska.  As we wrap up this RMC, Dr. Calkins speaks about the new Meat Science generations and his experience attending the RMC 2012 concurrent sessions, AMSA a...

Today we sit down with Jess Pryles who co-founded the Australasian Barbecue Alliance and is also the author of the book Hardcore Carnivore.  We talked with Pryles about the impact of the current social media platforms such as Instagram and Tik Tok on consumer purchasing decisions.

On this podcast, David Velazco shares about his MS research project where he worked under Dr. Chris Calkins at the University of Nebraska Lincoln. David dives into his research on new alternatives that could be implemented in the beef industry to reduce meat waste at the retail level. He studied the impact of Vit E on the color of fresh meat and explains how this can benefit retail businesses.

Our guest this week is Brandon Fields, Global Director of Applied Meat Science at Pig Improvement Company (PIC), and second time on MeatsPad.   Brandon has spent many years in the swine industry helping pork processors on various topics, including market weights, economics and the environmental factors affecting carcass and meat quality.

We shared our microphone during RMC 2022 with Dr. Mohammad Koohmaraie. Throughout his career he has studied the biological mechanisms that regulate meat quality and tenderness.  Dr. Koohmaraie has received numerous awards, including the Agricultural Research Service Technology Transfer Awards in 2004 and 2008, and the USDA Secretary's Award in 1995 and 2001 and in 2012. In addition, Dr. Koohm...

In today’s episode, Dr. Phil Bass talks with Chafik Barbar who is an entrepreneur whose mission is to advance Sustainable Global Food Security.  Chafik is CEO at Marble, which is a company that creates intelligent technologies to automate labor-intensive, repetitive, and difficult processing tasks across the food supply chain, starting in the beef and pork industry. Today he talks about the c...

We continue our series of meat science conversations at RMC 2022.This time we invited Dr. Amanda McKeith, an Assistant Professor at Fresno State University, and today she talks about muscle fibers and their relationship with meat quality. She joined the Fresno State faculty in August 2014 and her research interests include natural, organic and processed meat color, microbiology, packaging, quality...

At our last interview at IFFA 2022, we sat down with Ove Vasvari, who works for DMRI and explains how they support the pork industry to improve cutting yields.   His passion is to improve the economy of those meat processing establishments that he works on by improving their cutting yield performance.