Project description
Quality meat from extensive production
Consumers expect quality meat from animals reared on farms providing good animal welfare. The EU-funded mEATquality project will develop innovative concepts on extensive (e.g. outdoor) farms that consider societal demands, environmental concerns and economic needs of the farm and the entire chain. The project will examine the effects extensive husbandry factors have on intrinsic meat quality through data collection on conventional, organic and free-range farms, consumer expectation studies and controlled experiments. It will develop innovative techniques for automated quality assessment. The project will also evaluate blockchain technology and fingerprinting techniques to combat food fraud, assess advanced farming practices against sustainability aspects, and communicate the results through an app, animated movies and a database for authentication.
Objective
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
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
RIA - Research and Innovation actionCoordinator
6708 PB Wageningen
Netherlands
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Participants (17)
6708 PB Wageningen
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8000 Aarhus C
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05-552 MAGDALENKA
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82166 Munchen
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The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
1121 JK Landsmeer
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41013 Sevilla
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37008 Salamanca
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14005 Cordoba
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42121 Reggio Emilia
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43100 Parma
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2630 Taastrup
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22800 Le Foeil
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60 637 Poznan
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66123 Saarbrucken
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5831AV Boxmeer
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Participation ended
28022 Madrid
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18055 Rostock
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