Linking extensive husbandry practices to the intrinsic quality of pork and broiler meat

The mEATquality project aims to provide consumers with quality pork and broiler meat, by developing novel solutions that address societal demands, environmental concerns and economic needs on farm and in the chain. The ‘extensiveness’ of production is a key issue, and will be developed in a stepwise approach.

The first step surveys extensive husbandry factors in relation to intrinsic meat quality, through data collection on conventional, free-range and organic farms, and through consumer expectation studies.

The second will include controlled experiments on-farm to investigate intrinsic meat quality characteristics in relation to husbandry factors: genetics, forage, space and enrichment.

It will also develop innovative techniques for automated meat quality assessment at high line speeds, and combat food fraud through authentication of the final product via ‘fingerprinting techniques’ and blockchain technology.

The third step will check the novel farming practices against sustainability aspects: animal welfare, environmental impact and economic viability. Market acceptance of the new products and ways to communicate them to consumers will be studied. The fourth and final step will communicate and disseminate the results.

Key outputs are an ‘Extensive Practices’ app, animated movies and EIP Practice Abstracts for farmers, educational tutorials for consumers, retailers and restaurants, and an EU Meat Database for authentication purposes. mEATquality is proposed and co-designed by organic sector representatives Ecovalia and Naturland, in collaboration with CLITRAVI, the Liaison Centre for the Meat Processing Industry in the European Union.

They joined forces with academic partners (including 5 of Europe’s leading meat quality laboratories), Marel (poultry, fish, meat & further processing equipment) and poultry breeder Hubbard. Finally, Plukon Food Group supports the project in-kind. Collectively these partners span the chain from Farm to Fork