MLBA16: August / September 2010

 

 

 

 

In our effort to bring you the latest innovations in Asian meat processing, we stumbled upon a problematic paradox: Innovation usually leads to better outcomes but in the case of meat processing, this is not always the case. Experience demonstrates that there is no straight forward relationship between technical efficiency, productivity and meat quality.

 

That is because meat is an exceptional product. If we were making cars, better car brakes would increase vehicle quality while faster spray painting machines would raise productivity. Because no one eats car brakes or drinks car paint, there is a simple, straight forward relationship between innovation, productivity and car quality.

 

This is not the case with meat. Making livestock grow faster can put toxic residues in meat. Harmful drugs allow one to raise more pigs in a smaller space and grow them more quickly while cutting the feed's quality and quantity. Later, dyes can hide unsanitary meat processing methods or low quality meat. With modern equipment, dyes, fillers, water injection and melamine can be used to generate more revenue from the same quantity of meat. But they do so by increasing its toxicity and reducing its nutritional content.

 

When such modern methods are strategically misused, livestock production costs fall, profit margins get wider, processed meat's appearance improves but its quality and safety plummets. Consequently, technical innovations, when misapplied, can actually degrade meat's quality and safety while increasing net profits.