Beef's comeback holding steady

[frenchie]

Beef's comeback holding steady
this document web posted: Wednesday February 16, 2005 20050217p58

By Barbara Duckworth
Calgary bureau

SAN ANTONIO, Texas - Beef lovers continue to chew through vast supplies of ground meat, steaks and roasts with little regard for food safety scares linked to BSE, E. coli and heart health, says meat scientist Gary Smith of Colorado State University.

Smith told a special session of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association convention in San Antonio that attitudes have changed about beef and more people are turning to high protein diets as a way to control weight.

As a result, beef is enjoying a comeback.

"We should now consider returning to a diet more like that of our paleolithic ancestors: high protein and low fat," he said.

Beef consumption had been falling for years but began to turn around again in 1998, he added, partly because of the increased care taken in beef production and processing.

For example, according to Canfax statistics, Canadians ate 49.5 pounds of beef in 2001, which increased by two lb. per capita in 2003.

A new processing guideline called palatability assurance critical control points aims at offering a better product to keep consumers buying beef.

Critical control points include the right genetics, castration by seven months of age, mild or no growth hormone implants, a grain-based diet for the last 100 days of life and stress reduction techniques to prevent dry, tough meat.

Packers commonly apply electrical stimulation to carcasses to release enzymes in the muscle tissue to break down connective tissue. More meat sellers are demanding 14-21 days of aging.

Marbling remains a critical quality element.

"Marbling is like butter on a baked potato," Smith said. "Marbling contributes to the juice and flavour of beef just by its presence."

More people today want their beef cooked to medium or well done because of E. coli concerns. Extra marbling is necessary to hold the moisture and flavour even if it is cooked well.

Guaranteed quality is a growing trend among the 90 brands of beef sold in the United States, all of them surpassing the U.S. Department of Agriculture's quality grades. Most demand a specific feeding and cattle sorting program.

Jim Riemann, president of Certified Angus Beef, said the company has sold more than 500 million lb. of beef a year since 2000.

Created in 1978 to promote Angus cattle, it has grown into the largest branded beef program in the world and despite the BSE embargo, the company sold beef to Canada, the Caribbean, Mexico and the Philippines in 2004.

"We sold every pound of Certified Angus Beef we could get our hands on," Riemann said.

The company's program requires all cattle to have a black hide, but Twig Marston, extension beef specialist with Kansas State University, said quality goes beyond colour.

The Angus breed has a genetic propensity to marble well. Marbling may be more heritable than previously thought and there appears to be a connection between meat tenderness and good milk production

[Guest]

This article shows the true fallacies of CAB. Black color, tenderness associated with marbling etc. Gelbvieh, Simmental, Holstein, etc. must be extrememly tender if it is associated with milk. Sold every pound of CAB? Of course they did, every pound of beef period was sold. I don't know of anyone throwing out beef to rot because they couldn't sell it.

[Denny]