The European meat processing sector involves around 38,000 businesses, mainly SMEs, generating an annual turnover of 22 billion Euros, employing 800,000 people. Although meat consumption per capita in the EU has been increasing for many years, the EU’s Agricultural Outlook predicts a turning point within the coming years as a result of significant changes in dietary patterns. The European Animal Task Force stated during a special seminar in 2017 that “More than ever, a greater focus on animal derived food integrity (safety, authenticity and quality of products, but also their extrinsic value) is needed to secure Europe’s role as a leading global provider for safe and healthy animal derived products and help European food systems earn consumer trust”. Consumers generally believe that extensive production is synonymous to better product quality. This holds particularly for livestock species such as pigs and broilers that are kept at relatively high stocking density. However, to what extent the extensiveness of animal husbandry affects intrinsic meat quality is still to be confirmed. As credence attributes cannot be assessed by consumers, any property or claim that can add value to a product would be reflected through labeling or marketing thereof. As a result, this makes the product vulnerable to fraud as similar cheaper or inferior products could be misleadingly sold as ‘authentic’ at a higher price. For this reason, the authentication and traceability of products are becoming increasingly important, not only to ensure fair pricing and transparency, but also food safety. The time is right to speed up the development of scientific knowledge in the above areas, and make a change. Hence, the overall aim of mEATquality is to provide consumers with quality pork and broiler meat, by developing scientific knowledge and novel solutions with farmers and chain partners to address societal demands, environmental concerns and economic needs.
To achieve this a variety of production systems are assessed, ranging from conventional to organic and from intensive to extensive. Stakeholders in the broiler and pork production chain are involved: farmers, slaughterhouses, meat processors and retailers.
