Last year saw an almost-record crop and 2014 is on schedule to be even better. U.S. farmers become more efficient every year at increasing yield per acre.

An increasing world population, with estimates of more than 9 billion people by 2050, and a decreasing cattle supply necessitates the use of feed technologies to meet the current and future demand of beef.

Efficient deboning is paramount to optimizing production yield (maximizing the amount of meat removed from a chicken frame while reducing the presence of bones).

Optimization — the holy grail of management!

In the protein business, we are venturing into a market with relatively inexpensive feed ingredients.

Oven, fryer and smokehouse equipment suppliers continually are improving the design to minimize the gap between what processors want their cooking equipment to do and what the machines are capable of doing.

The Meat Sciences program in the Department of Animal Sciences at the University of Illinois is a program broad in scope, but collaborative in nature.

The centuries-old process of smoking meat has taken a new turn. Instead of using the customary smokehouse to preserve and enhance the flavor of meats, food processors are integrating the smoking and browning into inline cooking, which not only simplifies a laborious process, but also delivers significant health and competitive advantages.

Yield is key to profitability. Just as in other areas of processing, cutting and deboning have a direct impact on yield and, in turn, quality.

For processors, cleanly sliced proteins mean no tearing, smearing, or frayed and torn edges, in addition to no separation from core binding within the slices.