May 1, 2006

Safety and quality the future of the meat industry

It's six o'clock, dinner-time. Do you know where your meat's been?

In relationships, trust is important. More so in the expanding and billion dollar meat market, where menaces such as bird flu, mad cow disease and swine fever threaten to undermine consumers' confidence in meat.

Increasingly, that trust would have to be built on meat traceability, according to David Palmer, Managing Director of marketing concern Meat & Livestock Australia Ltd.

While traceability have long been adopted in the Australian beef industry, it is alien to many other countries.

The red meat industry is a piece of prime property to be harnessed by the world markets. Now, as consumers get richer, they are also more enamored with meat, they are also getting pickier. Low quality beef and beef of unsafe origins simply may not make the cut.

As consumers become more knowledgeable and increase beef consumption, the Australian meat industry is beautifully poised to capture such a market, Palmer said.