B.A.P. (Bert) Urlings: Convenient Pork Products: Challenges in Quality and Safety

B.A.P. Urlings (Bert), VION N.V./Animal Sciences Group, Wageningen University, The Netherlands

 

Summary

Food production in general and the production of food of animal origin is changing in a very rapid mode currently. The two main driving forces for change are: the globalization of trade and consumer behavior and needs.

In the food industry there is a dramatic globalization occurring and the consolidation of the new structures is more a horizontal consolidation instead of a vertical consolidation in supply chains. Large companies, such as JBS Swift, McDonalds, Unilever, Nutreco, Nestlé and VION have chosen to expand substantially in their core business.

The market and the consumer is also changing rapidly this results in new challenges for the food industry and the pork business in particular. These challenges in the market are often a combination of consumer needs (sufficient, safe and healthy products) and demands of citizens. These citizen demands in the pork supply chain are merely related to environmental issues and animal welfare aspects. In this contribution some aspects

of animal welfare (castration of piglets) and safety will be discussed.

 

Castration of piglets

Since a long time piglets are castrated to prevent boar taint in pork products. In a few markets castration is not practised. A few years ago Dutch NGO’s started to confront the public with the castration issue. This resulted in a common statement of pig producers, processors and the retail that paved the way to abandon castration in the near future. Research has shown that the current number of tainted carcasses varies considerably between pig producers and that the amount of tainted boar carcasses is between 3 and 5%. This level is still too high to implement boar raising now, research will elucidate management and selection tools to reduce boar taint further to an acceptable level. When these issues are solved it is foreseen that the number of boars raised in the EU will increase rapidly within the next five years.

 

Food safety, Listeria monocytogenes in pork products

Healthiness of food items is becoming increasingly important. Two issues are most relevant with this respect: the amount of (saturated) fats and the intake of salt. Both substances are abundant available in processed pork products. The reduction of salt in processed meats can effect: taste, yield, appearance and safety of the product.

With respect to food safety Listeria monocytogenes is the main hazard of concern. Recently an outbreak of listeriosis occurred in Canada resulting in 22 people dying as a result of contaminated processed meats. Figures of EFSA show a regular increase in confirmed cases of listeriosis in men within the EU. Current quantitative risk assessments show that processed meat products are the main source of disease in men, followed by smoked seafood and soft cheeses. These developments show the need for specific high care production area’s for ready to eat products and also the implementation of targeted microbiological testing and trend analysis with respect to listeria.

 

Acknowledgement

The authors gratefully acknowledge from the European Community financial participation under the Sixth Framework Programme for Research, Technological Development and Demonstration Activities, for the Integrated Project Q-PORKCHAINS FOOD-CT-2007- 036245.