Page 211 of articles about meat

The Obama administration, hoping to prevent recalls, consumer illnesses and even deaths from contaminated meat, will unveil a proposal Tuesday to force companies to delay sending beef, pork and poultry to grocery stores while government inspectors complete tests.

Pork production forecast is virtually unchanged despite a downward revision in the slaughter forecast. Production continues to be hindered by higher than expected prices generated a downward revision (1.3 percent) in consumption. Similarly robust prices are also expected to depress imports which are revised lower to the 2010 level.

China vows to strengthen its regulation of food quality to eliminate concerns over food safety and to adopt a system to assess the efficiency of the quality supervision and inspections undertaken by local governments.

Meat from the offspring of cloned animals could find its way onto the EU market, with no-one being any the wiser, after member state representatives refused the Parliament's demand to label clone-derived products. The two sides met until late Monday night to discuss updating novel food rules, but were unable to reach agreement on clone-derived food and nanotechnology.

China's Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) said on Monday that the government would launch a one-year crackdown on illegal additives in pig feed which have proven to be toxic to humans.

2010 was a record year for exportation of the PDO product, "Prosciutto di Parma". With an increase of 9,5%, 2.256.000 hams were exported to over 80 different countries. Foreign markets currently represent 24% of Parma ham production.

The tendency towards a higher concentration of slaughterhouses in Germany has continued throughout 2010. The 10 largest German slaughterhouses had, in 2010, a 75,1% market share which represents an increase of 16,1% over the last 7 years. The 4 largest slaughterhouses have 60,1% of the market compared to the 48,4% they had 7 years ago.

China’s pork exports in 2011 are forecast at 330,000 MT (CWE), a 19 percent increase from 278,000 MT in the previous year, fueled by strong demands in China’s export markets. Hong Kong, Japan, and Kyrgyzstan are the top three traditional Chinese export markets accounting for nearly 80 percent of China’s total shipments.

The National Pork Producers Federation (FNP) has announced an agreement, which should be approved this week, on a single logo that will be used to identify French pork.

According to information from the Spanish “Consorcio del jamón Serrano”, developed based on statistics from the National Tax Administration, throughout 2010 Spanish exports of cured ham grew by 4,8 percent in volume, reaching 22.680 tons, and by 6,8 percent in value, reaching 196 million Euros.

Despite the ministry of agriculture’s efforts to work with farmers so as to produce more piglets to meet the country’s demand for pork, there was still a shortfall of about 1.713 metric tonnes last year.

The Chilean Minister of Agriculture, José Antonio Galilea, announced on Monday the opening of the Chinese market to pork and prunes, and the opening of the Indian market to poultry and pork.

China’s pig crop production in 2011 is forecasts at nearly 668 million head, a half percent increase from estimated 665 million head in 2010. Given higher slaughter rate to total inventory, pork production in 2011 is forecast to rise nearly three percent to 52.5 MMT from an estimated 51 MMT in the previous year.

The European Court of Auditors audited the EU Commission’s supervision of the EU system of veterinary checks carried out at border inspection posts (BIPs) for meat imports.

The authorities in the central Chinese province of Henan have closed 16 pig farms and sealed 134 tonnes of pork products after an illegal drug was reportedly used to produce lean meat, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Wednesday.