ENHANCING THE COMPETITIVENESS AND VALUE OF U.S. BEEF

• Sponsoring Institution: National Institute of Food and Agriculture
• Project Status: TERMINATED
• Funding Source: HATCH
• Reporting Frequency: Annual
• Accession No.: 1005778
• Project No.: MIS-332060
• Multistate No.: W-3177
• Project Start Date: Jan 11, 2015
• Project End Date: Sep 30, 2017

Project Director
Dinh, TH.

Recipient Organization
MISSISSIPPI STATE UNIV
(N/A)
MISSISSIPPI STATE,MS 39762

Performing Department
Animal & Dairy Science

Non Technical Summary
Each year, the world wastes approximately 1.3 billion tons of foods. The United States loses almost 165 billion dollars ($165,000,000,000.00) worth of foods each year because of quality and safety issues. The loss has the greatest impact on the poorest segments of the population, who may spend more than half of their income to buy foods. Among all foods, animal proteins, especially beef, provide several important nutrients such as essential amino acids, fatty acids, vitamins, and minerals that support the immune system, eyesight, muscle building, body growth, and various bodily functions. Meats in general are very susceptible to quality degradation and bacterial growth because of high water activity and being rich in nutrients. The oxidation of lipid and protein and the bacterial spoilage can be detrimental to meat shelf life and its nutritional value. Moreover, the contamination of pathogenic bacteria such as Salmonella, O157 and non-O157 Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) has caused many costly recalls in the meat industry. Beef is of special concern because it is a commodity of great economic and nutritional values. Beef color can change rapidly after 3 days on the retails display cases, which decreases its retail value up to 25 to 50%, especially in the case of ground beef. Lipid oxidation can create various offensive odors and discolor beef, which, although not affecting safety, ultimately decrease its values. Pathogenic bacteria and its toxins, if contaminated into meats, will result in great cost for society such as recall, death, hospitalization, lawsuit, mistrust, increase in price, and shortage. Customers expect the beef industry to product safety and high quality products. Moreover, international trading involves prolonged transportation, which poses significant challenges to our ability to keep meat products wholesome. Product quality and safety are important parameters determine the survival of the meat industry, maintain the trust between producers and customers, and preserve our way of life. The effort of the meat industry to produce safe and high quality products requires constant research of knowledge and technologies to measure, monitor, maintain, and improve the production system. Therefore, the major goals of this project are to discover and to manipulate the chemical, physical, and microbiological properties of muscle foods through novel analytical and processing technologies to add values to and to enhance the quality and safety of these products. We will also strive to inform our customers of the innovations and challenges in ensuring the quality and safety of meat products to build trust and enhance our capability to respond to societal needs. Our focus will be beef products because of their economic and nutritional values, domestic and international demands, and the competiveness of the beef industry.To achieve our goals, we will focus on studying the mechanisms through which quality and safety of beef products may be diminished, such as lipid and protein oxidation, microbial spoilage, and prevalence, survival, and growth of pathogenic bacteria. Through accurate measurement and monitoring, we will develop and investigate novel technologies, especially those that are non-thermal or employ natural ingredients, to enhance safety and quality attributes. We will also actively monitor the changes in chemical and sensory qualities of meat products so that the employed technologies will not jeopardize the eating experience. We will also conduct consumer panel, focus group, consumer survey, educational programs, and other market research methods to inform the stakeholders of innovations and interventions that are currently used or being developed to keep product wholesome. The survey and programs will also be the tools to gather information so that we can respond quickly to societal needs. Our methods, therefore, involve a clear feedback mechanism so that the acquired data will be practical and beneficial to our stakeholders.Safety and quality are important for food security. Our ultimate goals through this proposed project are to secure the nutritious, safe, and affordable beef products and meats in general for the society and to ensure the competitiveness of the US beef industry and the US meat industry in general.

Animal Health Component

0%

Research Effort Categories

Basic

30%

Applied

60%

Developmental

10%

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
501	3320	1000	60%
701	3320	1000	10%
503	3320	1000	20%
712	3320	1103	10%

Knowledge Area
501 - New and Improved Food Processing Technologies; 712 - Protect Food from Contamination by Pathogenic Microorganisms, Parasites, and Naturally Occurring Toxins; 503 - Quality Maintenance in Storing and Marketing Food Products; 701 - Nutrient Composition of Food;

Subject Of Investigation
3320 - Meat, beef cattle;

Field Of Science
1103 - Other microbiology; 1000 - Biochemistry and biophysics;

Keywords

meat

beef

meat safety

meat quality

muscle foods

Goals / Objectives
Measure and improve beef quality, safety and value by assessing impacts of animal health, animal care, and processing management/production strategies. Determine factors influencing domestic and international consumer demand for U.S. beef.

Project Methods
Objective 1 (objective 1 of the multistate #W3177): Research related to this objective will focus on the assessment of product quality and safety and processing practices that improve quality and safety of meat products. The investigator will focus the effort on the oxidation of lipid and protein related to product shelf life, microbiological contamination, and novel processing technologies such as electrostatic spray or active packaging of antioxidants and antimicrobials to suppress the development of oxidation, spoilage, and growth of pathogenic bacteria. Moreover, processing techniques such as aging will be explored in differentmanners such as long-term aging combined with the use of antioxidants to improve the overall values of beef. Improved and new methods to assess quality and safety parameters will also be explored so that improvement can be accurately measured. Beef flavor and color stability will be carefully evaluated so that technologies employed to enhance safety or a quality attribute will not jeopardize the overall chemical and sensory qualities of beef products.Objective 2 (objective 3 of multistate #W3177): Research related to this objective will focus on information collection and dissemination, both domestically and internationally. Consumers' understanding andwillingness-to-pay for an improved quality or safety attribute will be explored. Consumer preferences of traditional attributes such as tenderness, juiciness, and flavor or culturally motivated issues such as grass-finished, locally grown, organic, etc. will be explored so that the meat industry can respond accordingly. The focuses of the objective 1 and 3 are related and will complement each other. The methods used toachieve the objective 3 will be consumer panel, focus group, consumer survey, educational programs, and other market research methods.

Progress 01/11/15 to 09/30/17

Outputs
Target Audience:Target audiences reached during this period are muscle food consumers, food animal producers, extension agents, animal and food science students, and national and international collaborators in muscle food research. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Opportunities to travel to multi-state meeting, which has been trememndously helpful for us to initiate collaboration with other scientists.We have 4 undergraduate research scholars, 2 M.S. and 2 Ph.D. students work on this projects. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We have published 4 manuscripts, 11 abstracts. At least 3 more manuscripts are in preparation.We are also reached more than 400 stakeholders including consumers, extension agent, and beef cattle producers. The stakeholders had better understanding of beef cuts, beef quality, and beef safety. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Goal #1: We established that quality and willingness-to-pay were increased for pre-rigor sausage and no safety risk was observed. This is an important finding becasue sausage makers now have evidence that pre-rigor meat can be used at higher pH and yield similar quality as post-rigor meat with phosphate. The result is a clean-label approach in improving beef sausage quality. We was also able to find a negative impacts of ergovaline on average daily gain of beef cattle and beef color. Although shelf life was not impacted, this result should gave pause to producers using tall fescue to finish cattle in grass-finishing operation. We also acquired important data indicating that spoilage bacteria might produce reducatases that can be used as a novel, clean-label approach to stabilize beef color. Goal #2: We obtained data of impacts of pre-rigor beef sausage production on consumer willingness-to-pay for premium products.

Publications

• Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2017 Citation: 2. Sukumaran, A. T., A. J. Holtcamp, A. K. Englishbey, Y. L. Campbell, T. Kim, M. W. Schilling, and T. T. N. Dinh. 2017. Effect of deboning time on the growth of salmonella, e. Coli, aerobic, and lactic acid bacteria during beef sausage processing and storage. Meat Sci.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: 6. Hergenreder, J. E., J. F. Legako, T. T. N. Dinh, P. R. Broadway, K. S. Spivey, J. O. Baggerman, J. P. Hutcheson, M. E. Corrigan, and B. J. Johnson. Zilpaterol hydrochloride affects cellular muscle metabolism and lipid components of 10 different muscles in feedlot heifers. 2017. Meat Muscle Biol. 1:192-206.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: 1. Holtcamp, A. J., A. T. Sukumaran, E. K. Wilkerson, A. E. Schnedler, B. J. McClenton, R. L. Lemire, C. R. Calkins, D. D. Burnett, and T. T. Dinh. 2017. Mitochondrial lipid composition and enzyme activity of post mortem beef longissimus muscle from angus steers fed endophyte-infected tall fescue seeds. The 70th Reciprocal Meat Conference of the American Meat Science Association. College Station, TX.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: 2. Schnedler, A. E., A. T. Sukumaran, A. J. Holtcamp, and T. T. N. Dinh. 2017. Effects of extended retail display on metmyoglobin reducing activity in ground beef model. The 70th Reciprocal Meat Conference of the American Meat Science Association. College Station, TX.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: 3. Sukumaran, A. T., A. J. Holtcamp, Y. L. Campbell, M. W. Schilling, and T. T. N. Dinh. 2017. Effects of pre-rigor deboning and vacuum storage on sensory attributes of cooked beef sausage. The 70th Reciprocal Meat Conference of the American Meat Science Association. College Station, TX.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: 4. Holtcamp, A., J, A. T. Sukumaran, B. J. McClenton, R. L. Lemire, B. B. Karisch, D. D. Burnett, and T. T. N. Dinh. 2017. Retail color and aerobic bacterial count of strip steaks from beef cattle fed endophyte-infected tall fescue seeds. 2017 ASAS Midwestern Section, Omaha, NE
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: 5. McClenton, B. J., A. T. Sukumaran, A. J. Holtcamp, R. L. Lemire, R. C. Thompson, O. L. White, R. C. Vann, J. R. Blanton, D. D. Burnett, and T.N. Dinh. 2017. Endophyte-infected tall fescue seeds had no effect on carcass characteristics of beef cattle. 2017 ASAS Southern Section. Franklin, TN.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: 9. Vu, P. T., A. K. McCain, M. V. V. Le, D. H. Nguyen, and T. T. N. Dinh. 2016. Influence of market settings and time of purchase on microbiological, chemical, and sensory quality attributes of beef in Vietnam. SPISE 2016, Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: 12. McClenton, B. J., C. W. Waldrip, C. G. Hart, A. T. Sukumaran, C. O. Lemley, J. R. Blanton, T. T. N. Dinh. 2016. Effects of summer and winter feeding of endophyte infected tall fescue seeds on average daily gain and activity of hepatic cytochrome p450 1a, 2c, 3a, aldo-keto reductase 1c, and uridine 5-diphospho-glucuronosyltransferase in beef steers. Joint ASAS/ADSA Annual Meeting, Salt Lake City, Utah.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: 13. Sukumaran, A. T., A. K. McCain, Y. L. Campell, W. M. Schilling, T. Kim, T. T. N. Dinh. 2016. Effect of pre-rigor deboning and storage time on the growth of Salmonella and E. coli in various stages of beef sausage production. The 69th Reciprocal Meat Conference of the American Meat Science Association. San Angelo, TX.

Progress 10/01/15 to 09/30/16

Outputs
Target Audience:Target audiences reached during this reporting period were students (undergraduate and graduate), extension agents, consumers, producers, and collaborating scientists (U.S. and international). Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?This project provided opportunities to travel to scientific conferences and multi-state meetings to collaborate with other meat scientists.We are currently collaborate with scientists at Utah State University and University of Nebraska in Lincoln to study the roles ofsarcoplasmic reticulum and mitochondrion membrane in beef quality. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We disseminated the results through various means including peer-reviewed articles, scientific abstracts, educational programs, and training programs. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We are conducting research on reductases, possibly from microorganisms, to improve beef color. We also enter the final stage of studying beef quality and safety affected by tall fescue seeds.In the next reporting period, we will investigate beef quality attributes, beef shelf life, and ergovaline residue in beef from cattle fed endophyte-infected tall fescue seeds. More importantly, we will focus on studying intracellular and molecular mechanisms that influence oxidation of lipid and protein in beef. We are collaborating with scientists at other universities to collecting data to support our future grant proposals.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Goal #1: We established procedures to measure fatty acids and plasma metabolites to support various studies in animal performance, animal reproduction, and meat quality.We madeimportant progress in studying bull fertility byemploying gas chromatography/mass spectrometry technique. The results are being prepared for publication.By studying ground beef oxidation, we realized microorganisms in meat might produce reductase that can be used to improve beef color. This exploration is ongoing. We also completed tall fescue seed feeding trial on beef steers and collected various carcass and shelf life data. These preliminary data will provide insights intoeffects of endophyte-infected tall fescue on ergovaline concentration inbeef, qualityofwhole muscle and ground beef products. This can have an important impact on beef safety and qualityas grass-finished beef become more popular. We also acquired evidence that pre-rigor beef could improve safety and quality of fully cooked beef sausage. Goal #2: We led an international research effort to investigate meat safety in Vietnam and surveyed consumers of their willingness to pay for safer meat. This effort demonstrates Mississippi State University's commitment in global food security. We presented the data in 2016 SPISE conference in Vietnam. We alsoevaluating the meat markets in Vietnam during a study abroad trip and possibilities for beef and cattle export from U.S. to Vietnam. Thisinternational collaborative effort is ongoing. The publication of willingness-to-pay for beef safety measures in Vietnam's meat markets is being prepared.

Publications

• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: McCain, A. K., P. T. T. Vu, N. T. Mai, M. V. V Le, D. H. Nguyen, P. R. Broadway, L. M. Guillen, M. M. Brashears, J. R. Donaldson, M. W. Schilling, and T. T. N. Dinh. 2015. Influence of market setting and time of purchase on counts of aerobic bacteria , Escherichia coli , and coliform and prevalence of Salmonella and Listeria in beef in Vietnam. Agric. Food Anal. Bacteriol. 5:135152.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Hunt, M. R., J. F. Legako, T.T.N. Dinh, A. J. Garmyn, T. G. O'Quinn, C. H. Corbin, R. J. Rathmann, J. C. Brooks, and M. F. Miller. Assessment of volatile compounds, neutral and polar lipid fatty acids of four beef muscles from USDA Choice and Select graded carcasses and their relationships with consumer palatability scores and intramuscular fat content. Meat Sci. 116:91-101.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Legako, J. F., T. T. N. Dinh, M. F. Miller, K. Adhikari, and J. C. Brooks. 2015. Consumer palatability scores, sensory descriptive attributes, and volatile compounds of grilled beef steaks from three USDA Quality Grades. Meat Sci. 112:7785.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: McClenton, B. J., C. W. Waldrip, C. G. Hart, A. T. Sukumaran, C. O. Lemley, J. R. Blanton, and T. T. N. Dinh. 2016. Effects of summer and winter feeding of endophyte infected tall fescue seeds on average daily gain and activity of hepatic cytochrome p450 1a, 2c, 3a, aldo-keto reductase 1c, and uridine 5-diphospho-glucuronosyltransferase in beef steers. 2016 ASAS Annual Meeting, Salt Lake, UT.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Sukumaran, A. T., A. K. McCain, Y. L. Campbell, T. Kim, M. W. Schilling, and T. T. N. Dinh. 2016. Effect of pre-rigor deboning and storage time on the growth of Salmonella and E. coli in various stages of beef sausage production. Abstracts from the 69th Reciprocal Meat Conference of the American Meat Science Association.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Vu, P. T. T., A. K. McCain, M. V. V. Le, D. H. Nguyen, and T. T. N. Dinh. 2016. Influence of market setting and time of purchase on microbiological, chemical, and sensory quality attributes of beef in Vietnam. 2016. 2016 SPISE Conference, Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam.

Progress 01/11/15 to 09/30/15

Outputs
Target Audience:Target audiences reached during this period are muscle food consumers, food animal producers, extension agents, animal and food science students, and international collaborators in muscle food research. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?This project provided an opportunity to travel to a multi-state meeting and to collaborate with other rsearchers. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Two manuscripts have been published. More scientific data are being prepared for publication. We are also reached more than 200 stakeholders including consumers, extension agent, and beef cattle producers. The stakeholders had better understanding of meat safety and quality, selection of meat cuts, and safe cookery of meat. The research and procedures have also been used to train 3 undergraduate students, 1 M.S. student, and 2 Ph.D. students. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Research for novel technologies to improve beef quality such as electrostatic spray of antioxidants and extended aging is underway. We will complete the study on steers fed endophyte infected tall fescue seeds to determine whether ergovaline will deposit into fat and muscle tissues. Data on microbiological safety and quality of beef in Vietnam and consumer survey of willingness to pay for safer products will be analyzed and published. A study on safety and quality aspects of using hotboned beef for sausages is alsounderway.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Goal #1: During this period, we established procedures to measure two components of meat quality: antioxidant status and fatty acid composition. We measure antioxidant status through analyzing either product of oxidation or the disappreance of antioxidant compounds in meat. It is important for future research in meat oxidation and shelf life because we can only manage what we can measure. Moreover, we established a baseline of ground beef oxidation including changes in color, antioxidant levels, and formation of lipid oxidation products. These results are being reviewed for publication. We also acquired preliminary data that will provide insights into liver enzyme activities as a response to ingestion of ergovaline by beef steers fed endophyte infected tall fescue seeds. Beef from these steers will also be analyze for ergovaline concentration. This can have an important impact on beef safety as grass-finished beef become more popular. Goal #2: We led an international research effort to investigate meat safety in Vietnam and surveyed consumers of their willingness to pay for safer meat. This effort not only demonstrate Mississippi State University's commitment in global food security but also provide valuable information for the beef industry. U.S. beef safety is well known worldwide. According to premilinary data, most consumers in Vietnam would pay more for safer meat or meat gurenteed to be safe. Therefore, this is an opportunity for U.S. beef. We are analyzing data and will soon be preparing publications to disserminate this information to the stakeholders.

Publications

• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Hergenreder, J. E., J. F. Legako, T. T. N. Dinh, K. S. Spivey, J. O. Baggerman, P. R. Broadway, J. L. Beckett, M. E. Branine, and B. J. Johnson. 2015. Zinc methionine supplementation impacts gene and protein expression in calf-fed holstein steers with minimal impact on feedlot performance. Biol. Trace Elem. Res. DOI 10.1007/s12011-015-0521-2.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2015 Citation: Hunt, M. R., J. F. Legako, T. T. N. Dinh, A. J. Garmyn, T. G. OQuinn, C. H. Corbin, R. J. Rathmann, J. C. Brooks, and M. F. Miller. 2015. Chemical assessment of four beef muscles from USDA Choice and Select graded carcasses and their relationships with palatability. Meat Sci.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2015 Citation: Legako, J. F., T. T. N. Dinh, M. F. Miller, K. Adhikari, and J. C. Brooks. 2015. Effects of USDA beef quality grade on consumer palatability scores, trained descriptive flavor attributes and volatile compounds. Meat Sci.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: McCain, A., S. M. Menard, B. Bounds, and T. Dinh. 2015. Measuring oxidative status of ground beef treated with rosmarinic acid. Abstracts from the 68th Reciprocal Meat Conference of the American Meat Science Association, 1518 June 2015, University of Nebraska in Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Submitted Year Published: 2015 Citation: McCain, A. K., P. T. T. Vu, N. T. Mai, M. V. V. Le, D. H. Nguyen, P. R. Broadway, L. M. Guillen, M. M. Brashears, J. R. Donaldson, M. W. Schilling, and T. T. N. Dinh. 2015. Influence of market setting and time of purchase on microbiological quality of and Salmonella and Listeria prevalence in beef in Vietnam. Agric. Food Anal. Bacteriol.