NEW ground is being broken in developing a cuts-based grading model for the lamb industry that will pave the way for greater value generation through segregation of cuts based on quality.
The beef Meat Standards Australia program led to dramatic improvements in consumer satisfaction and how processors and brand owners market their products.
The same benefits are set to come to the lamb industry through the commercialisation of the MSA sheepmeat cuts-based model, according to MSA program manager David Packer.
"At the moment the majority of lamb being processed is all going into the same box because there is no system to identify and differentiate lamb on eating quality, enabling it to be marketed at different price points," Dr Packer said.
"If we take the beef industry as an example, in the 1990s prior to the MSA program there was significant variation in eating quality and consumer satisfaction was dwindling. Through the industry-wide adoption of the MSA beef program, consistency in eating quality improved markedly, enabling MSA to capture greater value through underpinning consistency for nearly 200 beef brands."
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Dr Packer said a pathways MSA system for lamb had been in place for about a decade, which focussed on critical control points, such as ensuring lambs were finished to target specifications (fat score over 2 and GR fat greater than 6mm) and on using interventions such as electrical stimulation.
"However, under the pathways system lambs were graded as either MSA or not," he said.
"Now we are at the point where we have enough data based on more than 120,000 consumer sensory scores to establish a full cuts-based grading model."
A key contributor to enabling the MSA Sheepmeat cuts-based model has been new objective carcase measurement technologies developed through the ALMTech program, which is supported by funding from the Department of Agriculture in partnership with Meat & Livestock Australia, Australian Meat Processor Corporation, Australian Pork Limited, commercial companies, state departments and universities.
Since 2016, ALMTech has been working to develop advanced measurements of red meat quality and quantity that will enhance the Australian beef, lamb and pork industries' ability to respond to demands and capture value-chain price differentials. By 2040, it is estimated that ALMTech will have generated as much as $510 million extra for the beef, lamb and pork industries in Australia.
Dr Packer said the prototype of the lamb grading model was developed around 12 months ago, and since then MLA and other partners had been working closely with the majority of medium to large sheepmeat supply chains towards commercialisation.
"This has been achieved through benchmarking activities on commercial flocks, allowing supply chains to understand the variation in eating quality and volumes across seasons," Dr Packer said.
As a result of ALMTech's research investments, new technologies have been developed and commercialised to accurately capture critical measures of eating quality and carcase value, including intramuscular fat, lean meat yield and hot standard carcase weight.
"Having devices which can measure IMF as one of the traits of the MSA cuts-based model, has really progressed things," Dr Packer said.
"This has allowed us to demonstrate eating quality variation and the value proposition for the MSA cuts-based model for industry.
"We have been using the handheld SOMA NIR device which you apply to the face of a loin to generate an IMF output, which has been really useful for plants who don't have IMF technologies. There is also the MEQ probe which is commercialised and installed in a number of processing facilities and doesn't require a cut-surface, allowing a hot measure of IMF at chain speed."
The hope is that now processing plants are utilising IMF and LMY technologies, integrated with carcase tracking MSA cuts-based grading won't be far away.
"This would mean processers could provide consistency within their brand structures to consumers so they could really start saying 'what type of lamb do you want? We have an option at every price point'," Dr Packer said.
"That's when we see value and trust shared across the supply chain, starting with consumers willing to pay more for consistency. This allows brandowners to differentiate their product on customised eating quality specifications and other value drivers, with MSA doing the work in the background, rather than as a marketing tool."
ALMTech chief investigator Prof Graham Gardner said it was an exciting time for the teams behind the scenes to get these technologies ready for industry.
"To see SOMA NIR and the MEQ probe out making a difference in the lamb industry is really exciting," Prof Gardner said.
"ALMTech's end goal is to assist industry in utilising technology that will bring value back to them and, as the lamb MSA program nears a cuts-based grading model, I believe we are on the verge of a proliferation of lamb brands that will differentiate themselves thanks to these new technologies.
"Seeing how industry has picked up the ball and run with it is a testament to how innovative this industry is."
