Professor Dave Pethick

TOP Australian lamb and beef researchers and processors will outline the importance of Meat Standards Australia to the industry at the 64th annual International Congress of Meat Science and Technology in Melbourne this month.

In a celebration of MSA’s 20 year anniversary, the congress will run a special MSA forum as part of its program on Monday, 13 August, at the Grand Hyatt.

The MSA forum – titled ‘How Australia’s red meat industry has adopted eating quality science’ – will feature leading Australian meat researchers Dr David Pethick from Murdoch University, Dr Peter McGilchrist and Dr Rod Polkinghorne.

They will explore 20 years of MSA, its role in the modern marketplace representing 40 percent of the national adult cattle slaughter and 25pc of the lamb slaughter, and what the future holds for the world’s leading eating quality grading system.

Dr Pethick said key forum highlights will include discussion on the international reach of MSA and its research partners, where the revised cuts-based MSA lamb model is up to and the next 25 years.

The researcher has been a key contributor to the science behind MSA and said he was looking forward to celebrating MSA’s achievements on an international stage and hearing other countries’ interests in eating quality research.

Industry leaders including Mark Inglis from JBS and Tom Maguire from Teys will also discuss how MSA underpins their businesses and the program’s role in value-based marketing.

Dr Jean-Francois Hocquette from the French National Institute for Agricultural Research will bring an international perspective, sharing Europe’s interest in red meat eating quality.

Northern and southern beef producers Ian McCamley and Trent Osborne will provide an insight into how MSA has changed their businesses and the way beef is produced in Australia.

The congress Is being hosted in Australia for the first time since 1988 from August 12-17. It will bring together experts from all over the world to exchange information and ideas on the latest research in meat science and technology. The theme of this year’s conference is ‘Quality and Integrity for Global Consumers’.

MSA program manager, Sarah Strachan, said the MSA forum provides an opportunity for Australia to showcase MSA to a global audience and demonstrate how a research project with robust science has turned into a hugely successful commercial program for Australia’s red meat industry.

“MSA now captures the attention of countries all over the world because it has been able to demonstrate significant return on its investment and ultimately take the guesswork out of buying red meat for consumers,” Ms Strachan said.

The week-long congress program will focus on nine topics, including:

Provenance and fraud detection

Process control in the meat industry

Next generation technologies to assess carcase and meat quality

Food safety and microbiology

Smart packaging for quality, safety and integrity

Dietary muscle proteins for stage of life

Revolution in biometrics and consumer sensory science

Value adding to meat and offal

Glycolytic and proteolytic metabolism across species

Purchasing a ticket to the half-day concurrent MSA forum includes access to the full program for Monday and the MSA networking dinner on Monday evening. Please note the ticket price for the full five-day conference includes access to the MSA forum. For more information and to register visit http://www.icomst2018.com/

Source: MLA.