Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
The main goal of the herein proposed work is to foster the meat and poultry processing (MPP) industry by developing professionals with the required knowledge and skills. To that end, investigators will establish a minor concentration based on stakeholders needs (i.e., MPP industries) to foster growth and resilience of the Caribbean's MPP industry. Through a collaboration between the University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez (UPRM) and the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI) -St. Croix and -St. Thomas, participating university students will be equipped to become active industry professionals. There are four specific objectives:1. Establish an undergraduate MPP minor concentration - Design and implement a minor concentration in MPP that includes industry approved certifications in food and employee safety and an integration component (i.e., internship, research, or project). Students will be provided with necessary tools to work in an existing MPP facility or establish their own business.2. Offer a "787 Workshop Series" to provide a hands-on experience in a lab environment - Interactive and demonstrative activities in a protected environment to expand classroom theoretical principles and acquire hands-on practice.3. Offer a "787 Study Tour" to experience Puerto Rico's meat and poultry industry - This activity provides insight and exposure into active MPP businesses to understand their operation and identify potential areas of interest.4. Develop model blueprints to streamline the establishment of small MPP plants - Documents to facilitate business plan development and establishment.The primary result of the project should be the generation of MPP competent and food safety knowledgeable professionals.
Animal Health Component
0%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
0%
Applied
0%
Developmental
100%
Goals / Objectives
The main goal of the herein proposed work is to foster the Meat and Poultry Processing (MPP) industry by developing professionals with the required knowledge and skills to enhance this production sector. To that end, the following objectives have been identified:Establish an undergraduate MPP minor concentration - Design and implement a minor concentration includes industry approved certifications in food and employee safety and an integration component (i.e., internship or reserch project). Students will be provided with the necessary tools to work in an existing MPP facility or establish their own business, if they so desire.Offer a "787 (Puerto Rico's area code) Workshop Series" to provide an experiential experience in a lab environment - Interactive and demonstrative activities in a protected environment to expand classroom theoretical principles and acquire hands-on practice.Offer a "787 Study Tour" to experience Puerto Rico's meat and poultry industry - Activity designed to provide insight and exposure into active MPP businesses to understand their operation and to identify potential areas of growth and innovation.Develop model blueprints to streamline the establishment of small MPP plants - Model documents of MPP plants to facilitate business plan development.
Project Methods
Accomplishment of Objective 1 (Establish an undergraduate MPP minor concentration) requires collaboration between participating institutions and industry representatives to identify curriculum content. To acomplish Objective 1 we will:Investigator-industry meeting - Ameeting between investigators and industry representatives needs to be organized. In preparation for the meeting, one-on-one conversations will be carried out with stakeholders (i.e., slaughterhouses and processing plants) to explain the project and seek feedback of knowledge and skills of professionals. Gathered inputs will be organized and used by investigators to determine current course offerings at UPRM and UVI that could be included (as-is or after course content revision), as well as courses to be developed. All data will be presented at the investigators-industry meeting to generate the required discussion leading to curriculum definition.The final curriculum should consist of around 18 credits, including the possibility of an internship, research experience, or capstone type project (i.e., based on their interests). Participating students will be offered a scholarship to help cover any expenses related to the internship, research, or capstone project, or to attend a scientific meeting where they can network and identify internship or business opportunities. Also, projects funds will cover training cost for students to acquire their GMP, HACCP and 10-hour Safety (i.e., OSHA) certificates.Minor approval process - After curriculum definition, participating institutions will prepare and submit the required documentation to institutionalize the academic offering. It is expected for the process to last over one year, based on previous experiences. Participating institutions have specific criteria to name the resulting academic offering. For example, UPRM distinguishes among minor concentrations and curricular sequence. Though the content might be the same, a minor concentration can be offered if a major degree exists at the institution. Otherwise, it is called a curricular sequence. Both are recognized and appear in the student transcript. Similarly, UVI distinguishes between minor concentrations and professional certificates. For this proposal's purposes, the academic offering will be referred to as a minor concentration.Faculty capacity building - To strengthen poultry porcessing knowledge, Investigator Domenech and Agro. Ronda from UPRM will partake in a poultry industry intensive tour visiting several poultry processing plants in Georgia and Alabama, courtesy of Wayne Farms. Furthermore, a virtual training will be coordinated with J&J Food solutions, a US based agency with international poultry processing experience. The cost of this workshop will be covered with institutional funds, and it will be offered via Zoom opened to as many as 99 participants. Acquired knowledge and skills will help revise or develop minor concentration courses, as needed, and will enable poultry related workshop activities under Objective 2.Student selection process - Student recruitment criteria will be defined by investigators to ensure equal and fair opportunities to interested students in all three institutions. Current outlook is for participating students not to be restricted to be Animal Science major or even Agricultural Sciences. Investigators agree that participating students from diverse academic fields might result in a richer learning experience and better prepared professionals. Four waves of recruited students are foreseen, starting from years 2. The projects target is to recruit 6 students from UPRM, 2 students from UVI-St. Croix and 2 students from UVI-St. Thomas, for a total of 10 students per recruitment class. This distribution is based on budget requirements of the RFA but could be modified based on student applications (i.e., availability or perceived potential) and investigator's consensus. By the end of the project, we expect to impact 40 students in total (24 from UPRM, 8 from UVI-St. Croix and 8 from UVI-St. Thomas). Student mentoring will be provided by investigators to make sure students at all institutions are guided thought the program and have increased chances of success in their academic formation and future professional development.Assessment meeting - Annual assessment meetings will be conducted with participating students. Assessment will focus on student attitudes, views and opinions towards the industry, as well as their experience within the minor and the effectiveness of mentoring. Findings will be shared at the annual investigators meeting. Investigator Santiago will lead assessment efforts.Investigators meeting - Investigators will meet annualy to review assesment data, discuss project or student issues, and reach agreements. The in-person start-up meeting will happen at UPRM as part of the investigator-industry meeting at the beginning of year 1. Close-up meeting will take place at UPRM by the end of year 5. Follow-up/evaluation meetings will be conducted online at the end of years 1 to 4.Advancement ceremony - Having completed a year into the minor, experienced the activities in Objectives 2 and 3, the advancement ceremony will celebrate their accomplishments. This activity will serve to welcome the next wave of students going through the program and provide networking opportunities among students.Objective 2 (Offer a "787 Workshop Series" to provide a hands-on experience in a lab environment) will take place at the Meat Products Lab located in UPRM's main campus. The preliminary agenda consists of five consecutive days of in lab demonstrations and interactive experiences where students learn to process meat and poultry cuts and products. On each of the five 8-hour workshops participants will be exposed to different products and collaborating UPRM faculty with expertise in each animal field will participate in the workshop, as appropriate. Workshop activities will be recorded. These demonstrative videos will be available as virtual training resources for academia and industry.Objective 3 (Offer a "787 Study Tour" to experience Puerto Rico's meat and poultry industry) will be organized to follow Objective 2 activities. The week after the "787 Workshop", participants will travel from UPRM to visit Puerto Rico's slaughterhouses, processing plants, and meat shops. On days 1 through 5, the group will visit scheduled establishments in each geographical region. The activity ends on the sixth day with a visit to a local barbecue place where the facilities will be toured, and a celebratory lunch concludes the "787 Study Tour."Objective 4 (Develop model blueprints to streamline the establishment of small MPP plants) recognizes that some participants might be interested in establishing their own businesses and need a starting point. The preparation of model blueprints and budgets can expedite the preparation of business plans, thus, positively impacting the MPP industry development. Model blueprints and budgets requires networking with industry professionals and diving into existing regulations and guidelines to assure safe and efficient processing facilities. Primary focus will be place on small scale operations as these are more in line with the scale of operations that may be feasible in the Caribbean. After gathering industry and regulatory feedback, Investigator Pérez and UPRM engineering students working in their capstone projects will aid to translate data into equipment specifications, requirements, and costs. These, in turn, will become model budgets and plant blueprints that will be shared with the industry. Any additional feedback resulting from the investigators-industry meeting will be incorporated into the products before making them available through the Ag Extension web page.