'Ground-breaking’ meat quality project launched
The Integrated Measurement of Eating Quality (IMEQ) aims to deliver a “ground-breaking” automatic or semi-automatic system working at line speed to measure eating quality. The initial focus of the project will be on beef, with the aim to extend the equipment to lamb and pork. The scheme is being jointly funded by the Scottish Government and Quality Meat Scotland (QMS).
Officials hope the new system will lead to faster and more consistent measurement of eating quality, improving efficiency to the benefit on the whole meat supply chain. If successful, the new system could be rolled out across the meat industry.
“Scotland would be the first to have this novel technology which would deliver benefits throughout the meat production chain and could be integrated into existing systems used by meat processors”, said QMS.
The three-year £950,000-project has been awarded to the Scottish Agricultural College (SAC).
“The Scottish red meat industry has an enviable reputation for quality but recognises the need to embrace innovation to ensure it can continue to deliver a first-class product,” said the body’s academic director and vice-principal Professor Geoff Simm.
Research project
No further technical details on what the system may involve or how it could be incorporated into meat processing facilities are currently available, a QMS spokeswoman told FoodProductioDaily.com.
However, in the call for applications to lead the initiative, the government said last November the technology could lead to “the objective measurement of carcase and meat eating quality, and lean meat yield working at line speed in the abattoir”.
The system would seek to address the issue that “variation in meat eating quality is a problem for the meat industry and that inconsistent quality affects repeat purchase decisions”. It is understood that as well as highlighting superior quality produce, the system would also identify lower-grade meat so it could be further treated to improve its quality or used in another application.
The study will be split into two parts. The first will seek to use existing automated technology for assessing the weight, classification and lean meat yield of carcases. Project leaders will then look at integrating it with “other existing or novel technologies for measuring the transformation of muscle into meat and the resultant eating qualities”. The second part will be carried out “to make progress towards the development of a semi-automatic or fully automatic integrated system which could operate at line speed in an abattoir”.
Research will also be done to develop a system for the assessment of the nutritional properties of meat that could be integrated into this method.
Increased speed and consistency
It is hoped that the new system could help speed up the assessment of eating quality and provide consistency of evaluation. The current most commonly used methods are via taste panels – which are done retrospectively - or by mechanical methods, which the Scottish Government said are too slow.
“In the UK at present carcases are subjectively classified visually according to their conformation and fat level using the EUROP grid,” said the document. “Although the classifiers are highly trained, this system has a number of perceived problems such as inconsistencies and variability within and between abattoirs.”
QMS Chairman, Donald Biggar, emphasised the importance of the project to the entire production chain.
“A complex range of factors determine the texture and taste of meat and this programme will carry out research to develop new processes for the rapid assessment of eating quality in the abattoir,” he said. “Equally important, however, is the important signal this will send back up the chain to producers who will be able to adopt the best management systems to produce beef of a consistently high eating quality.”
