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During the year we supported the launch of ‘Sizzle Steak’ a new beef
product that adds extra value to the carcase and meets consumer needs
for convenient, nutritious and delicious food.
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- Watch the feedbackTV story 'Farm-a-ceuticals' (WMV, 5MB, 4:16min)
- Watch the feedbackTV story 'Raising the stakes for cheaper cuts' (WMV, 5MB, 3:47min)
NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
Develop new markets and products
Increasing competition from alternative proteins and alternative suppliers means we must continue to seek and develop new high value markets and value-added products.
A key focus of our activities during the year was the collaborative development of three new products:
- microwaveable, self-basting beef
- ‘Sizzle Steak’ cooked in less than one-minute suitable for stir-fries, wraps and meat salads
- a roasting beef cut that facilitates even cooking for the foodservice sector
Each was derived from secondary cuts, adding extra value to the carcase while meeting consumer needs for convenient, nutritious and delicious food. In parallel, we are evaluating a new processing technology – high pressure processing – for its ability to improve the tenderness and value of high connective tissue cuts.
Co-products from meat production such as offals, skins and hides, rendered products and blood, represent around 25 per cent of the value of a carcase and the potential exists to increase their value by developing new value-added products. To assist industry diversify into the area of high value co-products such as bioactive ingredients, we produced the Bioactives Compendium detailing information on 125 bioactive compounds, their sources in the animal, their markets and yields.
Another initiative in this area is to develop a means of amplifying the levels of bioactives in bovine and ovine organs post-slaughter for use in wound healing and neonatal care, as well as Chinese medicines and cosmetics. In laboratory trials, we were able to increase certain bioactive levels by more than 40 fold and success has been demonstrated in two quite different organs – the liver and the corpus luteum. In encouraging the industry to diversify into bioactives, we signed three partnership projects to develop a bovine enzyme, chondroitin sulphate and bovine serum products.
