American Meat Science Association (AMSA), the world’s largest organization of meat scientists, technology leaders, and students, is announcing that it has partnered with MeatsPad to make it the official podcast of AMSA.

MeatsPad, founded by Francisco Najar-Villarreal from Kansas State University (KSU), is a platform dedicated to sharing breakthrough knowledge in a way that is accessible to the meat industry. Dr. Phil Bass of the University of Idaho joined this effort to serve as a co-host. Each episode features meat specialists and professionals talking about a variety of topics in meat science, including animal welfare, meat production, meat quality, food safety, and much more.

Francisco is a Ph.D. Candidate at KSU and also created MeatsPad ESP to serve the Spanish-speaking market. He said, “I’m happy to collaborate with AMSA, academia and the meat industry through conversations with talented and brilliant meat scientists. These discussions help foster and improve communication and knowledge dissemination within the meat science community. Partnering with AMSA will be a great way to expand our audience and showcase all of the great contributions from the members.”

AMSA’s vision is to be an organization recognized for its unmatched competence and commitment to attracting and developing meat industry leaders and providing science-based meat research and information.

“A podcast such as this aligns perfectly with this vision,” stated Collette Kaster, CEO of the American Meat Science Association. “We look forward to bringing this podcast to our sustaining partners and members to share important scientific and technological information in an easily accessible format.”

MeatsPad’s audience represents over 800 listeners in more than 40 countries. MeatsPad has over 6,000 downloads to date. The content is meant to target small mid-sized meat processors, retailers, decision makers, production managers and the meat science community. MeatsPad is available on major digital platforms, including Spotify and Apple Podcast. 

Meat scientists and meat specialists have participated in 23 MeatsPad episodes including a recent episode featuring Dr. Travis Arp from the U.S. Meat Export Federation. He shared the importance of the quality attributes of meat produced in the U.S. as well as the details about those factors that make the U.S. meat industry a very competitive and successful global supplier.

Other featured guests include:

• Dr. Kurt Vogel from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls talked about the importance of humane handling and slaughter of livestock. He also encouraged meat processors to have an effective restrainer system in place to ensure a proper stunning. 
• Dr. Jonathan Campbell, Associate Professor at Pennsylvania State University, discussed the art of curing and the applications of sodium nitrate and nitrite in processed meats.
• Dr. Aladin Bekhit from the University of Otago spoke about his work on meat oxidation and some of the current meat packaging strategies used in New Zealand to extend the shelf life of fresh meat.
• Dr. Amilton DeMello shared some of his current work on meat and nutrigenomics and how feeding cattle different diets will affect the microRNA profile in beef and may be used as biomarkers for meat quality.
• Dr. David Gerrard, a Professor and Head of the Department of Animal and Poultry Sciences at Virginia Tech, touched on various topics as an introductory episode that outlined the basics of Meat Science.
• Dr. Chris Calkins discussed rigor mortis and some of the practices that meat processors should follow to enhance tenderness. He also discussed chilling times and how to manage the temperature in the hot box when lean beef carcasses are being processed.
• Dr. Ranjith Ramanathan from Oklahoma State University helped meat processors understand meat color. He discussed the types of meat packaging and how to optimize the shelf life of meat.

More information can be found at https://www.meatspad.com/ and https://meatscience.org.