NEXT GENERATION MEAT QUALITY

Program Leader

Professor Dave Pethick
Tel: 08 9360 2246

Latest Updates - Winter 2010

Measuring meat science phenotypes
The second round of intramuscular fat (IMF) analyses has been completed and the first 2 years of data (some 3,800 records) has undergone genetic analysis. This shows IMF is highly heritable and favourably correlated with shear force tenderness (high IMF = more tender) and unfavorably correlated with lean meat yield (genetic correlation = -0.51). Further investigation is underway to find sires which break this unfavourable relationship.

The following papers are being prepared for the Sheep CRC conference:

What lean meat yield means for producers, processors and consumers
Heritability of meat quality traits and relationship with other aspects of production
Growth paths and their potential management through genetics and nutrition
Meat processing for efficiency and product quality
Factors ensuring eating quality for consumers
Lamb supplies key nutrients for human health

Biology and production pathways for desired phenotypes

MSA consumer eating quality

Cut collection for MSA consumer eating quality evaluation is well underway with all lambs successfully sampled from Katanning. Importantly the last kill group had a mixture of cross-bred and merino lambs which will allow a more rigorous statistical analysis. The first kill from Kirby has also been sent for consumer steak preparation.

Lamb supply chains

Lean meat yield prediction

CT scanning of information nucleus flock lambs was targeted towards the Hamilton and Turretfield sites, and is almost complete - one kill remaining for the Hamilton site. This work continues to underpin the stability of the lean meat yield prediction.

Supply chain coordination and engagement

Bruce Hancock has been busy in his new role as National Lamb Supply Chain Coordinator. Bruce continues to optimize the prospectus of CRC and MLA products relevant to this work area, which is aimed at engaging with the processing sector and to strengthen linkages back to lamb producers. Furthermore Bruce has been actively involved in establishing initial contact meetings with targeted supply chains. Meetings have been completed with a major Victorian supply chain, and a major South Australian supply chain, with follow-up activities planned. Meetings are underway with 2 lamb supplychains in WA to initiate producer training packages for increasing lamb supply in collaboration with Program 1.

Lean meat yield (LMY) measurement and prediction

Modest investments are being made into new measurement technologies for LMY, including:

Ultrasound - a project proposal is being assessed which aims to overcome the image quality issues that hindered the first phase of experimental work.
A project proposal for a prototype probe to measure C site fat depth and eye muscle depth has been approved by MLA. Development work will get under-way shortly.
2-D Xrays are still being investigated as a LMY predictor – contact has been made with Meat & Lamb New Zealand regarding the usage of an Xray driven rib cutter which is apparently being used successfully to predict yield in a New Zealand supply chain.
Targeted weighing of cuts has been progressed at one NSW abattoir.

Application of meat processing technologies

Prediction of tenderness using Raman spectrophotometry

Lamb meat samples have been sent to Germany for testing with the German produced hand held Raman instrument by researchers at the University of Bayreuth. Matching samples will be tested for shear force in the Cowra lab and then analysis will be undertaken to examine how well the Raman instrument can predict tenderness.

E-stim project

Electrical stimulation equipment was found to be operating incorrectly in the abattoirs collaborating with the CRC to process the INF lambs after the first round of INF lambing. A CRC project was immediately established to rectify the equipment, solving the pH x temperature compliance in all collaborating abattoirs. However it is clear that a follow up auditing of systems is required across the industry. A series of recommendations for MSA for future testing of electrical stimulation compliance has been prepared and presented to MSA. In association with this work, CRC meat science staff have spoken at a series of workshops organized by MINTRAC. It is anticipated that further presentations will be made at MINTRAC organized workshops later in 2010

Colour stability

Samples of the loin and topside have been collected from the first two Rutherglen kills (n~115) for work on meat colour stability. These samples have been packaged at SRS Packaging (Tottenham) and returned to MRTC Werribee for display as an over-wrap and modified atmosphere packaged (MAP) product for 4 days and 9 days respectively. Samples have been collected for fatty acid (FA) and Vitamin E analysis. Ultimate pH measurements have been collected on the topside, in addition to the routine measurements conducted on the loin as part of the sheep CRC INF phenotyping.

This work will increase the meat yield of sheep and raise consumer demand by building on the key virtues of eating quality and human nutritional value of lamb.

Benefits to industry

This program is expected to increase industry profitability by $523 million over the next 25 years by improving lean meat yield and quality through:

Increasing processing efficiency
Enhancing eating quality by improved measurement of meat quality
Securing and improving the nutritional claims of lamb as an excellent source of iron, zinc and omega-3 fatty acids
Improving yield while maintaining quality
Increasing the market value and productivity of lamb through integrated production and genetics
Increasing the value of lamb to producers, processors and consumers

Key areas of work

Through a combination of traditional selection techniques and cutting-edge genomic selection technologies, this program will deliver:

New meat quality traits for yield, human health and eating quality which will be used to develop new sheep breeding values
The production pathways through the supply chain to deliver new traits right through to the consumer
A commercial test to differentiate odour levels associated with aged sheepmeat
A system to electronically track carcases and cuts through the abattoir
New methods to measure lean meat yield and techniques for improving quality within the abattoir

The Information Nucleus flock will breed 18,000 Merino, first-cross and second-cross lambs over five years from eight research sites. These animals will provide a large data set with over 12,500 pieces of meat quality data to be collected during processing.