MeatsPad

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.

To continue with these dialogues during the 75th RMC, Erin Borror, Vice President of Economic Analysis for the US Meat Export Federation, talks about the current challenges the global meat markets are facing and how it is impacting meat pricing. As Economist, Erin is responsible for USMEF’s red meat export forecasts, trade policy related analysis, global market analysis for U.S. exporters, and U.S...

Today we speak with Dr. Mindy Brashears, Professor and Director of the International Center for Food Industry Excellence at Texas Tech University. Dr. Brashears describes her humanitarian work for the meat industry in Latin America. She has also led research work in Mexico, Belize, and Argentina to improve food safety and food security in the region.

Today we sat down with Collette Kaster, CEO of the American Meat Science Association, to talk about this year's RMC. Together with Kaster, we discussed the purpose of the RMC, which is not only a symposium but also a networking opportunity for our industry partners.

Drs. Francisco Najar and Phil Bass traveled to the old continent to meet meat industry leaders in Germany and Spain. Today they discuss what they learned about new technologies and innovations presented at IFFA, Public University of Navarra and Viscofan.

Today, we continue our conversations at the IFFA show in Frankfurt, Germany. We share our German table with Brad McLeod and Desmond Johnston, two meat science enthusiasts from Canada. They discuss butcher skills and education, meat technology, and communication channels within the global meat industry. McLeod discusses the pitfalls of new technologies and innovations in the meat industry, while De...

Today we share our microphone with Master Butcher Kari Underly, founder of Range Meat Academy and author of the famous book "The Art of Beef Cutting". Kari shares her journey into the meat industry education over the years.    Meat Our Host: Kari has made critical contributions to the meat industry. She played a crucial role in developing and introducing significant cuts to the market. S...

We continue visiting meat industry leaders at the IFFA show. Today we talk with Dónal Lock who is the Chef Executive at Kerry. He explains the relationship between culinary arts and meat processing/meat science and how they merge to feed the current consumer.

We begin these series of episodes recorded at the IFFA show with global meat industry leaders in Frankfurt, Germany. Today we sit down with Volker Steinkamp who is the founder of Cliptechnik, a German firm created 15 years ago which provides clipping solutions for the global meat industry.