Evaluating the biological safety of raw materials accepted for a meat processing enterprise

The article describes the problems in assessing the safety of raw materials in the meat processing industry and ways to solve these problems. The issue raised is important from the industrial safety point of view. The purpose of the article is to analyze biological hazards as an element of the procedure of checking the criterion of the examination’s effectiveness when accepting raw meat at a meat processing plant. Subject of research: raw meat accepted at the meat processing plant, "decision tree" at the stage of raw meat acceptance, initial and residual proteolytic microflora, control-critical points of veterinary-sanitary expertise. Materials and methods. General scientific methods of cognition are applied: analysis, synthesis, abstraction, deduction. For the study and comprehensive analysis of its object monographic, as well as a special method of research, an abstract-logical one, are used. In the course of performance of the work, microbiological methods of research are used: microscopy of preparations, inoculation on nutrient media. The information base of the research consists of the legislative and regulatory acts of Ukraine and the Regulations of the European Union in force, Codex Alimentarius standards, scientific works of domestic and foreign scientists, the authors' own observations .Results of research. The research was conducted in the laboratory of Lityn Meat-Packing Plant, in Vinnytsia Region. Identified hazards found at the stage of acceptance of raw materials are controlled by veterinary examination, namely the points of veterinary and sanitary control. Examination of raw materials takes into account the control of biological, chemical and physical factors in obtaining raw materials, purchase and processing, preparation for production, distribution, sale and consumption of the finished product. In the conditions of the enterprise LLC Lityn Meat-Packing Plant the procedure of identification of dangerous factors at the stage of acceptance of raw meat was carried out and 4 control points were established. Scope: the results of the study are recommended for use in meat processing enterprises.

Meat Production and Supply Chain Under COVID-19 Scenario: Current Trends and Future Prospects

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted meat production, supply chain, and meat prices that caused a severe socio-economic crisis worldwide. Initially, meat and meat products' prices increased due to less production and increased demand because of panic buying. Whereas, later on, both meat production and demand were significantly decreased due to lockdown restrictions and lower purchasing power of the consumers that results in a decrease in meat prices. In early April 2020, meat packing facilities started to shut down due to the rapid spread of the COVID-19 virus among workers. Furthermore, meat producers and processors faced difficulty in harvesting and shipment of the products due to lockdown situations, decrease in labor force, restrictions in movement of animals within and across the country and change in legislation of local and international export market. These conditions adversely impacted the meat industry due to decrease in meat production, processing and distribution facilities. It is suggested that the integration among all the meat industry stakeholders is quite essential for the sustainability of the industry's supply chain to cope with such devastating conditions the future may hold. This review aimed to discuss different aspects of the meat industry and supply chain during the COVID-19 pandemic and proposed some future directions.

Superspreading events in the transmission dynamics of SARS-CoV-2: Opportunities for interventions and control

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the etiological agent of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) disease, has moved rapidly around the globe, infecting millions and killing hundreds of thousands. The basic reproduction number, which has been widely used—appropriately and less appropriately—to characterize the transmissibility of the virus, hides the fact that transmission is stochastic, often dominated by a small number of individuals, and heavily influenced by superspreading events (SSEs). The distinct transmission features of SARS-CoV-2, e.g., high stochasticity under low prevalence (as compared to other pathogens, such as influenza), and the central role played by SSEs on transmission dynamics cannot be overlooked. Many explosive SSEs have occurred in indoor settings, stoking the pandemic and shaping its spread, such as long-term care facilities, prisons, meat-packing plants, produce processing facilities, fish factories, cruise ships, family gatherings, parties, and nightclubs. These SSEs demonstrate the urgent need to understand routes of transmission, while posing an opportunity to effectively contain outbreaks with targeted interventions to eliminate SSEs. Here, we describe the different types of SSEs, how they influence transmission, empirical evidence for their role in the COVID-19 pandemic, and give recommendations for control of SARS-CoV-2.

Interregional SARS-CoV-2 spread from a single introduction outbreak in a meat-packing plant in northeast Iowa

ABSTRACTSARS-CoV-2 spread has proven to be especially difficult to mitigate in high risk settings, including nursing homes, cruises, prisons and various industrial settings. Among industrial settings, meat processing facilities in the United States have experienced particularly challenging outbreaks. We have sequenced SARS-CoV-2 whole viral genomes from individuals testing positive in an integrated regional healthcare system serving 21 counties in southwestern Wisconsin, northeastern Iowa and southeastern Minnesota, providing an overview of SARS-CoV-2 introduction and spread in a region spanning multiple jurisdictions with differing mitigation policies. While most viral introductions we detected were contained with only minor transmission chains, a striking exception was an outbreak associated with a meatpacking plant in Postville, IA. In this case, a single viral introduction led to unrestrained spread within the facility, affecting many staff and members of their households. Importantly, by surveilling viral sequences from the surrounding counties, we have documented the spread of this SARS-CoV-2 substrain from this epicenter to individuals in 13 cities in 7 counties in Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota, a region spanning 185 square miles. This study highlights the regional public health consequences of failures to rapidly act to mitigate viral spread in a single industrial setting.

The relevance of development of critical initiatives in meat packing industry for the purpose of implementation of a new Food Security Doctrine of the Russian Federation

The goal of this article consists in carrying out comparative characteristics of the Russian Food Security Doctrines adopted in 2010 and 2020; specification of their role, purpose, relevance, and flaws in the national security development strategy, as well as setting priorities, tasks and objectives of the new Food Security Doctrine and its meaning for the development of Russian meat packing industry. The author reveals a multifactor (multicriteria) method of assessment of the development of food production markets for ensuring food security. Using such tools as the balance method, logical, comparative and economic-statistical analysis, the author examines uncertainty factor in the meat packing industry in management decision-making with regards to its sustainable development, as well as functional dependencies of factors affecting fluctuation in stability and planning of the situations that define importance of the development of meat packing companies. It is concluded that the objectives of national security of the country, described in the new Food Security Doctrine, require a comprehensive solution of multifactor and multilevel tasks, including the establishment of centralized management of administrative and financial resources as an integrated and effective tool for the development of meat packing industry, as well as creation of nationally-oriented centralized food industry with a unified operation office and human resource reserve.

Many roads from pasture to plate: a commodity chain approach to China’s beef trade, 1732–1931

The advent of refrigerated transport made fresh beef a global commodity, linking South American and Australian producers to hungry consumers in Europe and North America. With vast supplies of cattle, and growing markets in Japan, Russia, and beyond, China was the last great frontier of this global transformation. Rather than a single export trade, China’s beef industry was a complex and multidirectional network of producers, processors, and consumers, its many production chains each facing distinct commercial, logistic, and political challenges. This article examines three such chains, the Qing-era caravan trade that drove live sheep and cattle to Beijing, the Harbin meat-packing industry that grew up around the Russian China Eastern Railway, and Japanese-dominated export of beef from Qingdao. A cross-section of these issues shows how the industry as a whole adapted to the new pressures and opportunities of globalization, as well as those presented by technology, foreign investment, imperialism, and war.

Microbial Consortium for Processing Secondary Collagen-Containing Raw Materials into Feeds for Farm Animals

In recent years, the problem of processing and rational use of the secondary raw materials of the meat industry is becoming relevant all over the world. Pork skin or wastes accumulate in significant quantities at meat-packing plants and slaughter houses in livestock farms. There are various technologies for processing collagen-containing raw materials, but their widespread introduction to enterprises is constrained by high cost. One of the effective approaches to solving this problem is the processing of collagen-containing wastes of pig complexes by biotechnological methods. For these purposes, compositions of consortia based on yeast have collagenase activity: Clavispora lusitaniae Y-3723, Candida utilis Y-263, Candida lipotica Y-3153, Candida lipotica Y-3157, Candida arthrobotrys F-1138. The compositions of nutrient media for co-cultivation of yeast were selected: temperature, pH, duration of cultivation. It was found that the degree of biodegradation of collagen-containing raw materials under the action of the consortia is 89.7%. The mass fraction of protein in the hydrolysates of collagen-containing raw materials is 78.15%, which opens prospects for their use as feed for farm animals.