Meat Packaging And Handling For Export Markets: Problems And Opportunities For Research

Exporting beef products has been given high priority status by a number of producer and packer groups in the United States. The primary advantage that the U.S. beef industry has to offer foreign consumers is the excellent taste reputation of grain-fed beef. Although the U.S. beef industry does not have competition with respect to palatability, other countries that specialize in exports currently offer products at a much lower price because of either the strong dollar, government subsidization or both. The U.S. meat industry has made some inroads into expanding the export of fresh chilled beef, but tremendous opportunity still exists for even greater expansion . One criticism that has been levied against fresh-chilled beef from the U.S. is the lack of sufficient shelf-life. Australian fresh-chilled beef is reported to have a shelf-life of at least 100 days while fresh-chilled beef from the U.S. is said to have only a 45 day shelf-life. Although this large difference in shelf-life is unlikely, important foreign end-users of U.S. beef perceive this to be fact and attribute this difference to: (1) lack of proper sanitary conditions and temperature control during slaughter-dressing and fabrication; (2) the use of indiscriminate spray-chilling after slaughter; (3) ineffective packaging materials and equipment for export needs; and (4) inherent differences between forage-fed beef (Australian) and grain-fed beef (United States). If the U.S. meat industry is to become more competitive in fresh-beef export markets, they must use state-of-the-art technology to make certain that they can meet the shelf-life demands for their markets. Some of this technology is available, much is not. This paper will discuss the current state of the knowledge in the following areas: a) slaughter-dressing for maximum shelf-life; b) carcass/primal cut spray chill systems; c) role of fat on microbial growth; and d) barrier properties of packaging materials. The paper will conclude with a discussion of research voids in these and other areas.