“The Classics Never Go Out of Style!”
by Chris Reinhardt, feedlot specialist
Beef Quality Assurance is now nearly 40 years old and still going strong and is stronger than ever. The BQA program started out with the intent of educating all U.S. beef producers on what to do, and not to do, to ensure that 100% of U.S. beef was safe and wholesome for consumers.
In some developing countries, any form of meat is a luxury item that few can afford to eat on a regular, daily, basis, and because of insufficient infrastructure for transport, processing, and refrigeration of fresh meat, food safety is also a luxury. Foodborne illness is commonplace in these countries.
But in the U.S. and other developed nations, food safety is table stakes. All the marketing in the world about flavor or nutritional value or convenience falls completely on deaf ears if the assumption that the product will be safe, 100% of the time, is violated. Zero tolerance. Western consumers have zero tolerance for food risk, mainly because we as the production community have provided them with that level of assurance over the past few decades.
We have one of the safest food supplies in the entire world, because the entire food production community has taken food safety seriously. In the 1950’s, foodborne illness was common, and yet today it is so rare that it is newsworthy whenever or wherever it happens at the industrial level, regardless of whether it arises from meat, eggs, milk, or vegetables.
The modern industrial food production process is fascinating and incredibly complex. The level of technology employed simply in keeping foods safe for consumers would be mind-boggling to a consumer from the 1950’s, or even to a modern consumer in the developing world who do not have access to this precious gift.
Most beef producers of today understand the need to keep beef safe. But it is important that we keep training each other, learning from one another’s mistakes and successes. Decades ago BQA started out by making sure needles weren’t left in the muscle of cattle; we moved injection site from the valuable top round to the lower value neck muscle area; we moved product use, whenever possible, from intramuscular to sub-cutaneous administration; residue avoidance became a priority so we emphasized adherence to label instructions and withdrawal times; and most recently, we’ve included training on reducing the stress level of cattle at all stages of production leading up to harvest.
Food safety will never go out of style; its job one for everyone in the business of feeding the world. Never stop learning, and never stop teaching one another in order to maintain consumer trust.