Objective
Processed meat products have growingly become a popular solution for highly nutritive yet affordable meat for consume,
having the global market for these products registered a remarkable increase in the past years. Once the prime cuts and
main pieces of meats have been cut from the carcasses, there is still a substantial amount of muscle tissue attached the
bones. The optimal use of this meat would be in processed meat products. In case the residual meat is recovered by hand,
the product is considered as meat and legally treated as such. However, if the recovery is done mechanically, the product
should be regarded as mechanically separated meat (MSM), a supposedly lower quality product, and treated as such in
accordance to present EU legislation.
Nowadays, mechanical methods are the industry’s preferred approach. Significant technical improvements in the mechanical
separation processes have been seen during last years, which enable the production of MSM that cannot or can only hardly
be distinguished from manually-processed minced meat. Thus, there is a need to establish an objective and accurate
method to quantify the degree of degradation of muscle structure, as there are no objective arguments supporting the
separation of MSM and minced meat.
Building from this, we have developed a highly reproducible histochemical method for the harmonization of the assessment
of meat quality in laboratory quality control settings as well as fast and objective method to perform online quality
classification of comminuted meat at the production line.
Through the present innovation project, we will demonstrate the economic benefits to end-users and added value of our
technology for meat industry market. Moreover, the accomplishment of the project objectives will represent a major business
opportunity, with an estimated 5-year aggregated turnover of almost €23 million.
Fields of science
Keywords
Programme(s)
- H2020-EU.3.2. - SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine, maritime and inland water research, and the bioeconomy Main Programme
- H2020-EU.3.2.4. - Sustainable and competitive bio-based industries and supporting the development of a European bioeconomy
- H2020-EU.3.2.1. - Sustainable agriculture and forestry
- H2020-EU.2.3.1. - Mainstreaming SME support, especially through a dedicated instrument
- H2020-EU.3.2.2. - Sustainable and competitive agri-food sector for a safe and healthy diet
Funding Scheme
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1Coordinator
6100 Haderslev
Denmark
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.