GoingToMeet

Consumer attitude and behavior towards food is rapidly changing on a worldwide scale. There is a strong focus on health issues including healthier food. The demand for convenience food products, in smaller ready-to-eat portions, is on the rise. Consequently, the importance of delivering fresh and safe meat products with an extended shelf life is increasing. Packaging is becoming more important in the selling process; fresh foods should be conveniently packaged and easy to store.

Animal production and processing is facing a difficult time. After mad cow, classical swine and avian influenza, consumers are sceptical and want guarantees about the meats they eat. Meat safety can only be guaranteed if every step in the meat production chain is carefully monitored and controlled. To stay current with these developments, today’s meat business is about improving:

• yield
• traceability
• profitabilty  
• quality
• portioning
• efficiency
• hygiene
• performance
• tranparency

Meat producing and (further) processing companies adapt and impove their production processes to meet the demands. International food quality institutions developed standards for quality assurance and secured traceability. The trend is towards systems that cover the entire food chain from primary production to finished products: from feed to meat. And that is where VIV comes in.