The real cost of dark cutting meat

摘要

The early stages of a three-year research project by CSIRO Food and Nutrition are estimating dark meat colour (dork cutting) is costing the Australian red meat industry about $500 million annually, a far cry from the $36 million previously quoted by Meat and Livestock Australia. But trials looking at cattle from King Island slaughtered at a processing plant in Tasmania are indicating there may be factors relating to pasture intake impacting on the incidences of dark cutting. This is in contrast to traditional beliefs that minimising pre-slaughter stress was the main way producers could reduce dark-cutting incidences.