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;
·
Preventing
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