As a business major in college, the math and some of the science classes I had to take were labeled as “(blank) for the non-scientist.” I took “Chemistry for the non-scientist,” and this class was great because it taught me what I needed to know about chemistry as it pertained to my major, but didn’t go into too much technical detail. Over the past 20 years or so, I have attended many meat industry seminars and webinars and been overwhelmed by the overly technical explanations about interventions. It’s certainly true that these technical explanations are essential for those in this field, as the science behind interventions is important to understand, but I was not versed with the vocab and technical talk about interventions.
Three years ago I was asked to help select another set of interventions in a beef fabrication plant I worked in, and I had the opportunity to meet with more than a dozen experts in the field to help determine our best options. What I share with you here is a non-technical, purposely over-simplified and short discussion about what interventions are, why we need them, how they work and how to choose a proper intervention in your plant.