Quality whole-muscle meat is the prerequisite for successful product-development initiatives. The first step begins with protein material harvested from healthy animals that have been inspected and tested to rule out the presence of chemical residue, antibiotics and other undesirable additives that may end up in finished product.

“Once the carcass passes postmortem inspection, a product sampling plan is executed to test for [such pathogens] as Listeria, E. coli and Salmonella,”confirms Josh Herring, Ph.D., assistant professor, Department of Food and Animal Sciences, Alabama A&M University. Other safeguards include solid GMPs (good manufacturing practices) that enable processors to minimize or eliminate problems related to contaminations; BMP (basic metabolic panel) tests as a general screening tool; and cGMPs (current good manufacturing practices) that indicate a company’s employment of the latest technologies and systems.

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