MeatsPad

This week we feature two members of the K-STATE Meat Science group to talk about palatability and one of their most recent research comparing plant-based products to ground beef. Dr. Travis O'Quinn and MS Sam Davis discuss about their findings and how consumers preferred ground beef over plant-based beef alternatives.  Meat our guests: Dr. O'Quinn graduated with his B.S. (2008) and M.S. (2010...

This week we have the honor to feature Dr. Jesús Velazco, Director of Perishables at HEB México, who will touch on the current challenges faced by the retail industry in North America. He shares some tips for folks in the meat department to have a profitable and prosperous business.  Dr. Velazco also participated in the bovine myology project, which has led to many improvements in terms of cu...

This week we sit down with Dr. Ty Lawrence to address some questions from meat processors on how much water we should use when processing livestock. Dr. Lawrence is a professor of animal science at West Texas A&M University and has spent a lot of years studying water usage in the meat industry as well as evaluating how to improve the yield, quality, and safety of red meat products. Today you w...

“𝑭𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒆𝒙𝒑𝒐𝒓𝒕 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒆, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒘𝒐 𝒌𝒆𝒚 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒑𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒘𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌 𝒐𝒇 𝒂𝒔 𝒊𝒕 𝒓𝒆𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒇𝒂𝒕 𝒒𝒖𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒖𝒎𝒆𝒓 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒄𝒆𝒑𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒅𝒖𝒄𝒕 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒉𝒆𝒍𝒇-𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒑𝒐𝒓𝒌 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒅𝒖𝒄𝒕𝒔” 𝐃𝐫. 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐬 𝐀𝐫𝐩 This week we welcome back our former guests to continue the conversation on pork quality. Dr. Travis Arp and Dr. Dustin Mohrhauser from USMEF and Smithfield Foods, respectively, talk about some of the challe...

This week on the MeatsPad Podcast we receive Jack Bobo, author of the book ‘Why smart people make bad food choices' During this episode, Jack shares his previous experiences and explains about the role of agriculture in the modern world and how the food industry, government, and academia may work together to combat food waste. In addition, he dives into the future of food and describes how consume...

This week we sat down with Dr. Jeremy Adler who is an expert on sanitation in the meat industry. Dr. Adler highlights the ins and outs of an efficient sanitation program that could be used by meat processors. Meat our guest: He obtained his BS in Microbiology, MS in Reproductive Physiology, and PhD in Food Microbiology/Meat Science from Colorado State University. Dr. Adler is a Sr. RD&E progra...

This week we talk about what is happening in the meat science community with the upcoming Reciprocal Meat Conference taking place in Reno, Nevada. In addition, Dr. Bass shares about his current research on dry aging. Sit back and enjoy this conversation!

We are delighted to have the opportunity to present you such a great project which is an example of giving back to the community and fighting food insecurity in the state of Colorado. Dr. Bob Delmore and Jordan Levi are leaders in the meat industry and today they explain how cattle feeders, meat packers, and academia came together to tackle hunger in Colorado. Meat our guests: Dr. Bob Delmore is a...

This week we sit down with Dr. Joe Regenstein to discuss about religious slaughter. His broad experience and extensive work in the kosher and halal food categories will help us to address questions from beef producers who want to learn more about this topic. Meat our guest : His B.A. and M.S. are from Cornell and his Ph. D. in Biophysics is from Brandeis University. Dr. Regenstein is a Professor E...

This week on the MeatsPad, we feature Dr. Daniel and Diana Clark from the Certified Angus Beef®brand. Today we dive into the specifications of the CAB program and to discuss about the uniqueness of CAB and what makes it a very successful brand. Daniel and Diana Clark engage and teach partners about beef quality and meat science at the brand’s Culinary Center and meat labs across the country. The t...

We are very pleased to receive Karsten Schellhas on MeatsPad today! He is a 4thGeneration German Master Butcher, who worked in many countries in Europe, Canada and the USA.  He has extensive experience in the meat but also in the alternative protein industry. Karsten has helped companies of all sizes – from small to large to achieve their goals. Using process technology and innovation is impo...

This week we feature Diana Huerta who is an Applications Engineering Manager from Sealed Air’s Shrink Bags Product Line. Besides all her knowledge and experience in food packaging and polymers, she is a meat scientist and works with meat processors to optimize the shelf-life of fresh meat on a daily basis. We are entering a new era in meat packaging and Diana points out how the meat industry is co...

Let’s talk about Salt! This week we sat down with Dr. Rodrigo Tarté who is an Assistant Professor and Meat Scientist in the Department of Animal Science at Iowa State University. He has many years of experience in academia and industry and discusses the importance of salt in processed meats to ensure food safety, texture, flavor and more.  Meat our guest: He holds BS and MS in Food Technology...

Dr. Dale Woerner is an Associate Professor and Cargill Endowed Professor at Texas Tech University. Today, Dr. Woerner, Blake Foraker, and Jenna Frink discuss the benefits and challenges of beef X dairy crossbreeding production systems in the U.S. Meat our guest: Dr. Woerner earned his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Animal Science, Meat and Food Industry Management from Texas Tech University in 2003 and...

We feature Rebecca Thistlethwaite who is the Director of the Niche Meat Processor Assistance Network (NMPAN), an Extension community-of-practice housed at Oregon State University. She highlights the role of NMPAN and how this organization helps meat processors across the U.S. Rebecca has over 23 years working in agriculture in many different facets, from farmworker and farm owner to agricultural r...

Our guest on this week’s episode is Dr. Bucky Gwartney, an International Marketing Specialist with the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service. He discusses about the role of USDA-AMS in providing beef grading services to large and small meat processors. He is responsible for the development and oversight of red meat standards, which include the beef yield and quality grades, among other standards, an...

In this episode we sit down with Dr. Anna Dilger, an Associate Professor of Meat Science and Muscle Biology at the University of Illinois, and we dive into policy, research, and pork quality. Dr. Dilger shares some suggestions for small and mid-sized meat processors who may use inexpensive tools like measuring pH to improve pork quality. Meat our guest : She is a graduate of Purdue University of t...

This week our guest is Noah Hall, a Director of Processing and Kill Floor Equipment for UltraSource in Kansas City. He will share more about his role and meat processing education opportunities that are available in the meat industry for meat processors who seek to expand their knowledge. Meat out guest: Noah is a native of North Dakota and received his undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineeri...

We are honored to host Dr. Michael Dikeman this week on MeatsPad. Dr. Dikeman is a Professor Emeritus in Meat Science at Kansas State University. Today, he shares about his research contributions and their impact on the meat industry after nearly 50 years of teaching and conducting research at K-State. Early in his career, he cooperated with U.S. Meat Animal Research Center in Nebraska for 18 year...

We feature Dr. Travis Arp who is the Senior Director of Export Services/Access for the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF). Today, Dr. Arp shares about the importance of the quality attributes of the meat produced in the U.S. Also, he explains in detail about those factors that make the U.S. meat industry a very competitive and successful industry. Travis started with USMEF in October, 2012. At US...

Our guest this week is Dr. Jonathan Campbell who is an Associate Professor at Penn State University. Dr. Campbell discussed today about the art of curing and the applications of Sodium Nitrate and Nitrite in processed meats. Meat our guest: Dr. Campbell began his career in the meat industry in 1998 while working as an Animal Science undergraduate student in the Meat Laboratory at Clemson Universit...

In this episode we feature Dr. Kurt Vogel who is an Associate Professor of Animal Welfare and Behavior at the University of Wisconsin – River Falls. Dr. Vogel talks about the importance of humane handling and slaughter of livestock. He also explains more in depth about efficient stunning methods in meat processing facilities. He teaches courses in animal welfare, animal physiology, and meat scienc...

Our guest this week is Dr. Aladin Bekhit, a Meat Scientist and Associate Professor at the University of Otago in New Zealand. Dr. Bekhit’s research interests include muscle biochemistry and other factors that control meat quality, more specifically the color of fresh meat and tenderness. He also studies the waste streams in meat processing facilities. Meat our guest: He obtained his PhD in Biochem...

This week our guest is Dr. Dustin Mohrhauser who is an Associate Pork Quality Manager at Smithfield Foods. He will share today with us about some routes for retail business to communicate with large pork processors when procuring fresh pork. Pork abscesses are not very common but may be formed due to lesions or vaccinations. Meat our guest: Dustin earned undergraduate degrees (BS ’07) as well as g...

Our guest this week is Dr. de Mello who is the Meat Science and Food Safety Program Leader for the University of Nevada, Reno. He shares with us some of his work on meat and nutrigenomics and how feeding cattle different diets will affect the microRNA profile in beef and may be used as biomarkers for meat quality. Over the course of his professional and academic career, he taught animal products a...