National Cattlemen June 2025 | Page 11

Despite inflationary challenges, consumers continue to demand beef. At the grocery store, shoppers choose beef for its taste, versatility and nutritional value. The industry has worked tirelessly in the last four decades to improve quality and eating experience, however, a hidden hazard has the potential to derail those efforts. Foreign objects, such as buckshot, birdshot, needles and darts are found embedded in muscles during processing at alarming rates, and some of those items are making it all the way to the meat case in retail outlets.

According to the most recent Beef Checkoff-funded National Beef Quality Audit( NBQA), all plants surveyed reported finding foreign objects during the harvest and fabrication of market cows and bulls, and a majority of surveyed plants( 53.3 %) reported instances of their customers finding foreign objects in their products. While plants have installed metal detectors and x-rays to help prevent foreign object contamination, it remains a problem throughout the beef supply chain. And, the problem isn’ t only reserved for market cows and bulls, but for fed cattle as well. Foreign objects originate during production phases, beginning at the farm and ranch level.

In the early‘ 80s, little focus was placed on quality and beef demand was cut in half between 1980 and 1997. Findings from the first NBQA in 1991 helped the industry shift from a supplydriven market to a demand-driven market and, in 2024, beef had its strongest demand in 37 years, according to Patrick Linnell, analyst at CattleFax.

“ Our industry has made improvements for generations to bring the best product to our customers,” said Dr. Trey Patterson, CEO of Padlock Ranch.“ We’ ve demonstrated resilience by persevering through the pandemic and other challenges, but we can’ t rest on past successes.”

Per the USDA’ s Food Safety and Inspection Service, beef containing foreign materials, regardless of size or physical characteristics, is considered adulterated and must be pulled from the human food supply chain.

“ We don’ t want to dispose of high value product due to foreign material contamination,” Linnell said.

More than 50 % of U. S. beef consumption is ground beef, and CattleFax estimates that a record $ 58.2 billion was spent on ground beef in 2024. Foreign objects wreak havoc on grinding operations and can negatively impact the profitability of supply chain partners from pasture to plate.

To understand the breadth of the problem, if more than one BB is identified in beef trimmings, the combo bin( 2,000 lbs) of trim, and those produced before and after, are considered contaminated for a total of 12,000 lbs of trim. On average, today’ s carcasses weigh 940 lbs, with 25 % or around 235 lbs of the yield going to beef trimmings. To fill a 2,000-lb combo bin, source material is typically combined from nine or more head, meaning a single carcass could jeopardize 12,000 lbs of beef trimmings. Thus, for every head contaminated with foreign material( like a BB), trimmings from 51 non-contaminated head are at stake of never making it to the consumer.

“ Food safety is non-negotiable; it is an expectation of our customers,” Patterson said.“ Consumers also deeply care for how cattle are handled, and it is our responsibility as producers to continue providing the product they demand.”

While the newest technology, including x-ray machines and metal detectors, helps find foreign objects in processing facilities, they are not 100 % fail-safe. Foreign material contamination in the live animal needs to be identified and prevented in the pre-harvest sector. Recent Checkoff-funded research conducted by West Texas A & M University is looking for ways to identify foreign materials in live animals.

“ Our goal is to understand the efficacy of different devices to identify foreign objects in live animals and then determine how we can implement these systems,” said Dr. Trent Schwartz, PhD, with West Texas A & M University.“ We hope to create one more way to check animals for foreign objects before they enter the packing house.”

Foreign objects in beef cause inefficiencies throughout the supply chain, which ultimately leads back to hurting the product’ s value and creates a consumer perception problem that can erode demand. Reducing foreign objects in beef ultimately comes down to producers changing handling practices.

“ We are professionals and are the best in the business at what we do; we as an industry must fix this problem before animals get to the packing plant,” Patterson concluded.“ If you can’ t manage cattle without shooting them, then you have no business being in the industry.” www. NCBA. org NATIONAL CATTLEMEN 11