FROM DETECTION TO PREVENTION

Photo courtesy of BeefItsWhatsForDinner. com.

Figure 1: Foreign objects found in the beef supply chain that originated in the pre-harvest environment.

Beef safety is foundational to consumer trust and ultimately beef demand, with 65 % of consumers believing meat poses the highest food safety risk, and food safety failures having a more permanent impact on beef demand. 1 One threat to food safety is foreign objects, which are classified as a physical hazard in the food system. These objects can be discovered in the animal at harvest or introduced in the post-harvest environment. While not a new challenge, changing regulations have heightened awareness of foreign objects in meat products, redefining them as any object regardless of physical characteristics( e. g., shape, size, hardness, etc.). 2 The nature and source of these foreign objects can occur at the production phase( incidental ingestion of wires, lost needles, metal shot, remote drug delivery devices, etc.; Figure 1) or at the processing phase( processing equipment or supplies, human error).

The National Beef Quality Audit( NBQA), a benchmarking study funded by the Beef Checkoff, indicates food safety is nonnegotiable for industry members. 3, 4

Establishments reported facilities with foreign object challenges.

Today’ s Problem and Economic Impact

One of the most pressing modern challenges highlighted by the 2022 NBQA is the presence of foreign objects in meat products. Foreign objects pose significant implications for public health and consumer trust. 3, 4 In the past three decades, a growing prevalence of metal shot incidents have been identified at processing. 4 – 6 This challenge, reported at packing plants across the country, is not unique to the market cow and bull sector, but is also found in the fed beef sector. 3 Foreign object contamination is not regional, in fact, a 2025 survey of industry stakeholders indicated these hazards are found in facilities across the U. S., as shown in Figure. 7

States not highlighted in the figure should not be interpreted as an absence of the issue but rather an absence of a processing facility reporting the data. States highlighted in the figure are states with processing facilities

No establishment reporting in survey, but impact regional supply to state that is reporting.

Figure 2: Map highlighting where foreign objects are reported by processing facilities.

22 NATIONAL CATTLEMEN DIRECTIONS 2025