ProSafeBeef Project Boosts Beef Quality
ABERYSTWYTH - Audiences at this year's Beef Expo 2007 which has adopted as its theme “Action for Profit”, have heard how a new research project involving the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research (IGER) at Aberystwyth aims to provide major benefits for both producers and consumers of beef.
18 May 2007
2 minute read
| ProSafeBeef |
The overall objective of the ProSafeBeef project, worth 19million Euros is to reduce microbiological and chemical contaminants in beef and beef products and to enhance quality, choice and diversity in the beef-chain from farm-to-fork in order to boost consumer trust and invigorate the industry.
Thousands of beef producers from all over the UK and Ireland, as well as Poland, Germany, Belgium and other European countries are expected to attend this year's event to be held at Skipton, North Yorkshire on Thursday May 17 th . They will hear from IGER's Professor Nigel Scollan how research has already concluded that raising beef on a diet of natural forage crops keeps its appealing red colour for longer than concentrate-fed beef when both are kept under conditions designed to simulate display on a supermarket shelf.
“When fed on grass, cattle take in around 15 times more vitamin E per day than they do on a typical concentrate diet, and levels in the meat can be between two and three times higher as a result”, said Professor Scollan.
“Work by the IGER team has also linked forage-feeding with raised levels of beneficial omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids in beef whilst other ongoing studies are investigating claims that grass-fed beef also has a flavour advantage”, he added.
Professor Scollan says that the ProSafeBeef project will enable the beef industry in Wales and beyond to deliver innovative, novel and improved fresh beef and beef products from lower value and underutilised beef cuts that are safe, at trac tive to the consumer and of a high nutritional quality as beef farmers look to restore profitability to their businesses following the end of production-based subsidies.
IGER is working in collaboration with another 42 leading research and industrial organisations from all over Europe, as well as Brazil, New Zealand, Australia, the USA and Canada and will engage with SMEs, expert collaborators from third world countries and INCO partners with a vested interest in beef export to assist in delivery of the ProSafeBeef project to the end users and wider stakeholders in the beef industry.
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