Beef Quality Assurance Is About Consumer Confidence:
American consumers have become more health conscious than ever before. Consumers are concerned not only about how food tastes, but nutrition, food safety and the environmental impact of food production. There is additional uneasiness over potential drug and chemical residue contamination of meat products. They also perceive that using antibiotics in food animals might increase antibiotic resistance in microbes. These perceptions have sparked industry leaders to address safety and quality of beef products. Minnesota’s Beef Quality Assurance program began in 1991 as an effort to address these concerns and become pro-active in food safety and quality control.
Why Should Beef and Dairy Producers Be Concerned About Beef Quality Assurance Efforts?
Every producer should understand the need for strengthening and sustaining quality in beef products. Eighty-three percent of consumers believe that food safety is still a very important issue, ranked equal to crime prevention and safe drinking water. Issues that are of greatest concern to our consumer clients are; bacteria in food (85%), food handling and preparation (82% each), pesticide residue (78%), drug residue (75%) and hormones in food (67%).
The competition from poultry and pork products for market share at the meat counter, is stronger than ever before. If beef’s market share is to remain competitive, the industry must establish and maintain high quality standards for their product. Decreased public confidence in beef products causes reduced consumption, the cost for which trickles back along the production chain until it comes to rest at the producer’s gate.
Minnesota’s Beef Quality Assurance (MBQA) Program aims at quality issues including;
· Prevent injection-site lesions
· Feedstuffs management
· Drug and chemical residue avoidance
· Animal care and handling practices
· Bio-security
· Early culling to avoid lame and disabled cattle
· Maximizing carcass and hide value
· Record keeping