With the smallest cattle herd size on record, the impact of every pound of beef and every head lost due to foreign material contamination is even more significant today than it has ever been.
Pat Mies, Tyson Fresh Meats vice president food safety and quality assurance and beef industry food safety council chair, shares alarming math regarding foreign material contamination.
There is an economic loss due to cattle contaminated with foreign materials. Mies explains regulatory rules consider any foreign material, regardless of size, to be an adulterant and unfit for human consumption.
The issue is industry-wide and not just state or region specific. Processors from across the U.S. have frequently reported challenges with foreign material in beef cattle.
“It’s not a Texas issue or New Mexico issue or a South Dakota issue,” Mies says. “It’s an entire U.S. issue.”
Trey Patterson, Padlock Ranch president and CEO, says “Food safety in our industry is non-negotiable; it’s now an expectation.”
Patterson says the 2022 National Beef Quality Audit revealed a significant problem: 100% of non-fed plants reported finding foreign objects in beef, with half experiencing customer complaints about items like shotgun pellets. And in the audit, 50% of fed plants are having the same issue.
Trent Schwartz, West Texas A&M University assistant professor, explains, “This is not a fed versus non-fed issue. This is all cattle being sold for meat consumption, and we believe highly that all of this is happening in the production phase, whether it be cattle gathering techniques or treating cattle.”
Mies acknowledges plants have access to resources and technology to catch foreign material but it is not 100% accurate.
“We have metal detectors, defect eliminators, X-ray systems and vision systems,” he admits. “We’re using artificial intelligence to train these systems to do a better job, to get rid of these foreign objects. And then we also have the human element — people watching product and pulling product that may have foreign objects in it. We have all these things in our plants, yet we still have problems. It’s not 100% foolproof. It’s not 100% fail-safe.”
Economic Impacts
Patrick Linnell, CattleFax analyst, provided an economic perspective regarding cull cows and the financial loss due to foreign material contamination.
“Cull cows is one area in particular where there’s an especially strong connection between animal welfare and husbandry and value to the producer,” Linnell says.
With cow inventory at its lowest since the 1950s, and as the beef and dairy industries try to stabilize and rebuild, Linnell says cull cow supplies will remain tight for the foreseeable future. Cull cows on average represent 20% of total marketing and management for an individual operation and the industry as a whole, he adds.
“The consumer wants all the beef through the system that we can provide them,” Linnell says. “That’s why making sure we don’t have to dispose of this high-value product because of foreign material contamination is important.”
The economic and reputational implications of foreign contamination are severe. With current beef prices, each contaminated animal represents a significant financial loss. Moreover, these incidents can damage domestic as well as international market confidence.
Linnell says that 50% of U.S. beef consumption is in the form of ground beef.
“If you do the simple math and look at what ground beef costs today in retail stores, it’s on average, about $5 per lb. across the U.S. That is a lot of money that we’re pulling out of the system because people decided to use a shotgun and bird shot to move stubborn cattle,” Mies says.
Starts With the Live Animal
Schwartz is the lead researcher working on a checkoff-funded study in partnership with NCBA regarding foreign material detection techniques in live animals before the animal enters the processing facility.
He says a wide range of foreign objects have been found in live animals, with metal shot being the most common. He points out that most of the foreign material found relates back to metal objects coming from the live side, not something that’s added to the product post-harvest.
His team is cataloging pictures and materials received from plants and individuals for future use and educational purposes. The primary source of these foreign objects appears to be cattle handling practices.
“Cattle get in rough country and won’t come out,” he says. “The first instinct is to use a shotgun or rat shot, and to move those cattle with some metal shot.”
Hunters are another concern for the shot residue.
“We don’t feel like this is a hunting issue,” he says. “This is direct contact, point-blank type issue. Criminal mischief has also been brought up. Criminal mischief or criminal acts is certainly a possibility.”
He also says unintended exposure or living conditions can lead to the foreign material such as cattle ingesting wire and it protrudes through the stomach and into the skirt or other organs.
Darts are also becoming an increasing concern, with some found deeply embedded in muscle tissue and even lungs.
“We need to start looking at the production side and how we can limit some of these items that are making their way into the plant,” Schwartz summarizes.
His ongoing research project is focusing on developing methods to detect objects in live animals under the hide using ultrasound, X-ray and metal detection techniques.
“The goal of the research is to determine efficacy. Does it work?” Schwartz explains. This work will allow for technology advancements to potentially identify foreign material throughout the supply chain in the live animal.
How You Can Help
Patterson suggests a voluntary, industry-wide effort to address the problem before it reaches processing facilities.
“I need your help,” Mies says in a plea to all beef producers. “I need you to talk to your friends, your family, your neighbors, anybody that you can about moving cattle with shotguns, and that it should never happen in our industry.”
To learn more about foreign materials found during beef processing watch this NCBA webinar:
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