Livestock Wala'au
Welcome to the Livestock Wala’au podcast. Brought to you by the Livestock Extension Group of the University of Hawaii Manoa College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources and the Center for Ag Profitability of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. A podcast aimed to provide educational support, information, guidance and outreach to livestock stakeholders in Hawaii and the rest of the U.S. Hosted by Extension Professionals Melelani Oshiro of UH Manoa CTAHR & Shannon Sand of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Livestock Wala'au
S4 Ep12: From Pasture to Plate: Understanding Meat Quality Factors
Dr. Lyda Garcia, Associate Professor and Extension Meat Specialist with The Ohio State University, shares her expertise on the science behind meat quality and how proper livestock management impacts the final product consumers enjoy. Quality means different things to different people - from marbling content and color to freshness and safety - but understanding the factors that influence it can help producers deliver better products.
• Three types of stress affect meat quality: physiological, psychological, and nutritional
• Bruising causes significant economic losses, especially in beef cattle and cull cows
• Dark cutters (from long-term stress) and PSE meat (from short-term stress) are major quality issues
• Show animals often experience more quality issues due to handling and environmental stress
• Home processors should implement food safety practices including three-bucket cleaning systems
• Use a 1:1 ratio of white vinegar and water as a final antimicrobial intervention
• Proper cooling and temperature control are essential for both quality and safety
• Common sense practices prevent cross-contamination during processing
• Food safety shouldn't be compromised, especially considering vulnerable populations
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Aloha. Today's episode is sponsored by the Livestock Extension Group out of the University of Hawaii Manoa College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resilience, the Center for Ag Profitability out of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program.
Speaker 3:Aloha and welcome to Livestock Bala'au, a podcast aimed to provide educational support, information, guidance and outreach to our livestock stakeholders in Hawaii and the US. We are your hosts, meli Oshiro and Shannon Sand, and today we are talking with Dr Lida Garcia, associate Professor and Extension Meat Specialist with the Ohio State University. Thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you for having me. Yeah, excited to talk a little bit about what you do, and maybe that's where we can start if you want to just share a little bit of your background and your current position.
Speaker 4:Sure Well, I am originally from Texas, South Texas. I grew up 40 miles east of the Texas-Mexico border. My father was a Texas cowboy, you know, with a third grade level education but with a PhD in life, and my mother was a public school teacher for about 26 years, and so all my schooling, you know my education, is in Texas Went to a two-year school, an ag school, Clarendon College, first on a full ride to judge livestock who would have thought that would have started my career and then I transferred to Texas Tech University, an animal science, meat science, and then transferred over to West Texas A&M University for an animal science meat science master's and then wrapped up down with the Aggies at Texas A&M College Station with a PhD in meat science and then, and for some reason, I did a one-year postdoc. I guess I wasn't ready to quite grow up.
Speaker 2:I was going to say you must really like being home.
Speaker 4:And so I did a one-year postdoc at Texas Tech University and then they hired me on as a faculty just faculty where I was there to help increase diversity, recruit, you know, and of course from my neck of the woods I'm from South Texas, so that's exactly where I went to help increase their numbers, in addition to teaching, but then also traveled with our food safety, food microbiology team to Mexico and Central America to help make their meat supply safer. And so I was there for about four or five years and then came to Ohio where I started out as an assistant professor of meat science at the Ohio State University, and so, in addition to that, I also serve as the extension meat specialist and then, in addition, I also coach, coordinate a meat judging team for undergraduate students. Been there 10 years, I can't believe that.
Speaker 3:And I want to say too I also I met Dr Garcia through Meat Quality. Assurance is where we first met and yeah, so it's been. It's been great, you know, having that connection and person to talk to about meat quality.
Speaker 2:So, lida, balancing production goals with quality is a constant challenge for a lot of livestock producers, but just for those. Quality is a constant challenge for a lot of livestock producers, but just for those that, because we do get a lot of listeners that are kind of new to livestock production but really want to get into it or a part of it. But what is meat quality and how exactly is it evaluated?
Speaker 4:When you grow or not grow up. But when you go through a public school system, like I did, in that formal training that I, you know, I went through through all my, through all my degrees you learn that quality has a lot to do with marbling especially if you're talking about beef, right? Yeah. Also appearance, such as color and texture, and also tenderness. But, as, as I mentioned earlier, I did some work in Mexico and Central America, and also what I did mention was I also did some work in Puerto Rico. I learned that quality means something different to everyone, and that could mean freshness, that could mean color, that could mean so much, right.
Speaker 4:And so the first thing that I often share with my audience, because if I'm talking to beef producers, then they're likely going to be talking about marbling, they're going to be talking about color and they want a high quality product. And then that's when I probe them like well, what does quality mean to you? What does that mean? Some also include price, right, yeah, so that is one thing that I've always encouraged my audience is you know, if you're going to be in this arena and you're going to promote your product, whatever that is whether it's beef, pork, lamb, goat, even poultry we need to understand what it means first. But on a general level, at least you know. Just putting my associate professor had it on an extension, meat specialist had on I would say it's more of a, you know, a product that tastes good, that's going to result in a, in a positive eating experience that's also safe.
Speaker 2:I like that, that including the safe aspect, but also that culturally it could be different in different places. I had not thought about that. I didn't mean judging growing up a thousand years ago now, but I was just like. I was like oh, that totally makes sense, so yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you can only imagine my eyebrow going up when I'm down in Mexico and all these other countries and I'm trying to push the marbling aspect of it. To push the marbling aspect of it. And when you deal with the, with the, with the population that's poor, right, the poverty line, marbling means nothing. Survival means more.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah, you just want the protein and want it to taste halfway decent. I would imagine to some extent, Freshness is what I learned. They wanted it harvested that morning and they wanted it on their plate that that afternoon or that evening evening right and to them, that was quality. Yeah, and that's what I'm saying that's the safety aspect of things.
Speaker 3:Sometimes is a higher at a higher valued in quality.
Speaker 3:Right then then yeah it looks like at that point in some areas. Yeah, so I know there's lots of different ways, I guess, for us to look at quality now, but how, how is how is that evaluated as sort of like on an industry standard, right, and then everything I think every different species is going to. We have different ways of evaluating it, but do you want to talk a little bit about what's evaluated as far as meat quality on the industry and like on the commercial sort of side of things?
Speaker 4:So if I just use the US beef grading system, right?
Speaker 4:where we either will use a camera to evaluate the factors for a quality grade, and a quality grade in the United States consists of a marbling score and age and lean color maturity. Okay, and so, whether we're using a camera or an actual human being from the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service who serves as a grader, they're going to be looking for marbling color, texture and then skeletal maturity on that beef carcass. So we want a cherry red to a bright cherry red, something that looks very appealing, but of course that color can be impacted by age, hence why we account for age. But of course that color can be impacted by age, hence why we account for age. And then, of course, the older the animal gets, then naturally that meat product will be tougher.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and that's, I think, another leads us to a bigger topic that I think we could talk probably a lot about right, those different factors that start to then impact meat quality. There's ones, I think, you know we can control and ones that we can't control. You want to talk about a little bit about that? We've talked before about this in some of our workshops and some of these impacts to meat quality, but not just the impacts, but how important is that economically, and not even just not only commercial producers. It's not only economically important for commercial producers but even our our smaller, you know, producers, I think will even have a bigger impact right To them economically because they might be on a smaller scale. But so that's probably like five questions in one, but that's how we roll. But maybe just talk about some of the impacts that we can have in some factors that affect meat quality.
Speaker 4:So so I think you're referring to the practices, or the management practices while the animal's still alive. So you know, there's one thing that I tend to harp on, and this is something a little different than what likely my colleagues across the nation do I realized about six, seven years ago through extension, just in a simple conversation with some beef producers here in Ohio, that when it comes to quality, you know, if we result in a quality defect known as dark, firm and dry, or dark cutters, this is caused by long-term stress or a pill, soft and exudative PSE. As often, as it's referred to, that's caused by short-term stress and elevated body temperatures. People tend to turn to the handling process right away. It's as if that's like the only cause to these quality defects. And just through enough conversations I realized, you know, maybe I need to do a better job explaining this, because in my head it makes perfect sense, but to my audience, you know, I think this is where I was disconnecting.
Speaker 4:And so when we're talking about management practices, there are actually three stressors that we need to account for. One, obviously, is a physiological stress. Right, this is where the man can come in. Man in general comes in and either rough houses or gets them excited and has them run more. You know burning that energy and so forth but then you also have them fighting, as, as I often share with with my workshops and my programs. You know how many of us have looked at a certain person in in our lifetime and already realized we didn't like them and not even know who in the world they are. Right, these animals are no different. They will look at each other and then just start fighting. Now they have more flexibility to that than we have more regulations when it comes to fighting, but that would be a part of a physiological stress. But another thing that we also need to account for is what I refer to as a psychological stress. How many of us know people who stress when we turn on the lights? Yeah, and then how many of us know people who thrive on stress and I often will use this, use my family as an example my sister stresses on a turn of a dime and whereas I thrive off stress, I'm doing my best. You know when I'm stressed out.
Speaker 4:We have to remember that we're mammals, just like these food animals are, and I'm referring to livestock right and poultry and so we also need to account for the biological side of that animal, of where we could be doing everything right, and Mele can attest to this. I believe that we have some really good people out there, producers, who care, and when this is your livelihood, you're going to do your best to make sure these animals are treated and cared for properly, to make sure these animals are treated and cared for properly. So, and then, in addition to the psychological stress, we also have nutritional stress. Um, you know, it's, it's.
Speaker 4:It's one thing when you grow up in this arena and you're taught by, by parents and grandparents who have been there, done that, been through the school of knox, and and also those who have gone through that formal training, the education to understand the roles of, or the role that a protein, a carbohydrate and a fat play in an animal diet. Once again, we as human beings are no different. So I often encourage my audience and even our youth, such as 4-H and FFA, with our youth agricultural programs. Is, you know, put yourself in the equation, because often you know, like these college students who are 19, 20, their diet requirements are completely different than mine, and as I get older, my diet requirements change.
Speaker 4:But see, but at the end of the day. It's all about maintaining that healthy balance right, the homeostasis and so forth. And so I guess what I'm saying is is you know, when it comes to manage proper management practices, there are three stressors that we should keep in mind which is going, which should be the physiological side, the psychological side and the nutritional side. That, right, there will have a lot to do with that end product, and you know, and one thing that we have to keep in mind is once that animal goes through the processor and it's now up on hanging on a rail, we can't send it back for our producers to fix. So then the processor is left to figure out what do I do with this next? And still assuring that it's a safe product to release out into that food chain.
Speaker 3:Right, good point, and you know I want to share that one of our producers.
Speaker 3:I remember they had an incident that they didn't know what was going on.
Speaker 3:But they had a batch that came through and the meat was having.
Speaker 3:They had a bunch of dark cutters come through and when they turned back to look, kind of you know, trying to figure out what was going on, they had a storm pass through about five, seven days before these animals went to market and they were in a holding pasture and it was a like lightning, storm and everything you know. So those animals had gotten stressed from that and that's what had led up to where they were. And you know, and we you probably wouldn't have thought about it, you know. But then they started to look back at what had happened and thinking about that. They started talking about it with some of the folks that was working with them, doing some of their sheer force testing, and Turned it back to that was pretty much what it was. So is there a point where, like, if something like that happens, we know it's going to cause the animal stress, is there a certain period of time that we can sort of hold them and say let's wait then to send them to slaughter?
Speaker 4:energy. You know bovine, you know especially beef cattle. They have over 600 individual independent muscles, meaning they work independently, and each, each muscle holds on average, about one percent glycogen, and glycogen is the energy source that we utilize and we rely on to produce energy. So if the animal you know like I'll give an example like with these large packers, some of them will stop receiving cattle at about 3, 3.30, you know, maybe 3.45, and then just hold them in the pens for the next day, right or later on in the day, and so forth. Sometimes, if they're not running on a Saturday or Sunday and cattle come in on a Friday, then they have to hold them over until Monday. That's what we call hold over cattle. If a storm or a cold front or hail come through over the weekend, then what happens there is that that energy, that glycogen that I just mentioned, has been utilized for energy and to produce heat and all this other stuff. It's recommended that you just feed them and obviously, if glycogen is the energy, then we're looking at maybe some carbohydrates, right?
Speaker 4:The tricky part is knowing what's going on underneath that hide, and so, at least here in the United States cattle tend to be, or when cattle are unloaded at a packing plant. They tend to rest and I'm referring more to the larger scale packers than anything. They are unloaded, they're placed into a pen roughly 40, 45 minutes they rest. They have full access to water. They have time to calm down. Then, when it's time, then they are moved in a very calm fashion at least what I've seen personally into that S chute to enter into that packing plant. Again, think about the human. When we travel, we're either on bus or car or so forth. We arrive to our location, one of the first things we want to do is just sit. Yeah, it's no different.
Speaker 3:Economically. Now we talked about you know and the impacts, but on an economic scale, what are some of the, I think, biggest things that are creating losses to some of our meat producers in the state as far as in the commercial end of things?
Speaker 4:meat producers in the state as far as in the commercial end of things. Well, the first thing that comes to mind is our bruises. Bruises, you know, with our cattle being a bit larger and fed out longer, right, so they're a bit bigger. Our trailers haven't been adjusted, but you know, there was a study and at least this is what we use for beef. Quality quality training is, um, you know, minor bruises and minor could be about um as big as a baseball, um, maybe a softball, depends on depth.
Speaker 4:You know, one of the questions I I commonly receive is well, how big is a bruise and how much does it weigh? Well, we can't really tell you that, because sometimes it could be, you know, a very deep, profound bruise, but it only looks like maybe a quarter quarter size versus a football type. That's more shallow or what have you. But here's what I will tell you. I don't have the numbers exact, but I do know that our industry loses a lot of money to bruises around the hip area, right the rump area. Cold cows tend to be, know, have more bruising.
Speaker 4:But then, if you think about our elderly I'm going to go back to humans again think about our elderly, I mean they're more prone to bruising, absolutely, um, you know, these cold cows and the more advanced skeletal, um, you know, physiologically advanced, are going to be more like, likely due to, or more susceptible to, bruising. But, um, but, going back to your question, millie, uh, bruises are a problem yeah but I will say cows are huge too.
Speaker 2:Now, when they call them they're, they're big girls.
Speaker 4:I was like so, and dairy as well.
Speaker 4:I mean don't forget oh yeah, I mean that hip height it's. I mean they're, they're big, yeah, and it's something you know, that that's right in, that can be right in front of our, of our faces, and we're just not capturing what, um, what exactly is happening. I mean, you know, I grew up in south texas working cattle with my father and he would always say you know, pay attention to the animal, the animal will tell you what's wrong, but you've got to be paying attention. My dad says the same thing.
Speaker 2:That's funny. It must be an old ranger thing.
Speaker 4:Well, you know there's a lot of common sense involved a hundred percent this type of work, and if you don't have that common sense, then my personal opinion which means nothing like yeah, is maybe we shouldn't be in this arena. Then let's go find something that's more black and white for you but but you have to have common sense when it comes to production agriculture.
Speaker 3:Absolutely so. We see, you know beef cattle. I know we talk a lot about bruising, but are some of the smaller ruminants or hogs more prone to other complications and impacts to the meat quality?
Speaker 4:So I can't say bruising is a problem, at least with commercial swine right, because a lot of our large-scale packers are vertically integrated. You know, with lambs and goats, at least at the packing plant, I've not seen it being a problem. Now, if you're talking about quality defects, at least more on the county levels with the smaller processors that I've seen not just in Ohio but in others, there could be a good chance of that PSE, the pale, soft and exudative in pork.
Speaker 4:And you can. It's more common to see that in show hogs Bruising with lambs in, you know could be, and that could just be with them, handling them could be. Some of them like to fight. Let me tell you some of these show lambs that I've seen, they do like to fight and so, um, here in the state of ohio I do evaluate, I'll judge about 20 county fair carcass shows um, and if I do see bruising it's, it's not a big issue in pork or lamb or goat, but periodically we will see it. But I would say that if I had to pick a certain species it would be beef. You know beef and dairy cull cows more than anything. Cull. How about that cull?
Speaker 2:Is that just because I'm going to ask a really dumb question? So if it's wrong it's fine. But is that potentially just because I think of like to take a lamb to like production, or a goat or like even swine? It's a much shorter time period to finish than it is for cattle. So is it just that there's just more chance because you've got you know, anywhere from 16 to 24 months for them to potentially have something? I'm just curious.
Speaker 4:I don't know it's just just to maybe but if, if we think about what causes bruises, I mean that has to be a physical impact, yeah, right, so so, yeah, I mean, the longer that they live, I mean there's obviously more of a chance for them to acquire bruises, and that maybe if the if the bruise is profound enough and those muscle cells die off right, then then that becomes a callus, which calluses are not as common as they used to be. So our industry has done and I'm referring to beef more than anything Our industry has done such a great job, especially through beef quality assurance, those educational programs and transportation quality assurance and so forth. But I would say, you know, the bruising can happen at any time.
Speaker 4:You know, I was down in Mexico in 2019 or was it 2021, regardless, and there was a plant that had their own feedlot that they would just walk the cattle when they were ready out, just to the plant, I mean, and it was about a mile, and I noticed at the plant that there was these bruises on the quadricep which would be like our thigh muscle, and I noticed that there was just a continuous bruise and I kept wondering, well, what's going on?
Speaker 4:So I went over to the feedlot and just watched them move cattle around and there was a certain turn from one pen where cattle had to make a sharp turn to go into the alleyway and as they were turning that curve like that around that post they were slipping. There was something about that area that they just couldn't hold on to and then I realized there was concrete right underneath and it was shallow so they couldn't grip anything as they were pushing off and that was causing the bruising and it just wasn't a dime size, we're talking about a good baseball size bruise. I mean just think about that leg extending in a certain way. That's not natural, you know. So that I mean it can happen at any point. But yeah, I mean the longer they live, the extended higher chance of getting bruised.
Speaker 3:the longer they live, the they stand, a higher chance of getting bruised.
Speaker 4:Now you said with hogs PSC can be more common in show hogs. Why? Why more commonly seen in show hogs? Well, psc is is more, for you know it's caused by short-term stress and and elevated body temperatures, right? So picture it, you know you. You want you load an animal from its environment that it knows well, take it to an estranged place such as a county fair. You have all these different scents, all these sounds, people fighting, music blaring, kids screaming or laughing or what have you, and then all these people wanting to come and pet you, when you have no clue who they are. You know, know that all makes a difference and it can. Then they're loaded onto a trailer and heading to the processor. You know there's a new environment there as well, and depending on how they're handled, depending on who else is in the pen with them, once again, whether they like each other or not, you know it all matters and it all connects. Now, psc is more commonly found in pork and poultry, but that doesn't mean we can't find it in beef and lamb and goat. That's just more common in pork and poultry.
Speaker 4:And with PSC that's usually caused by short-term stress, so usually that's minutes before slaughter. So picture it, especially biologically, if the animal's naturally stressed out. Now I mean, think about you. You know, when we first started giving talks, our body temperatures increase and you hope you prayed that you remember to put on that deodorant, right, it's just a natural. It's just a natural response. So now you have the stress with elevated body temperatures. Imagine what's happening, you know, and and when it comes to the meat, skeletal muscle, that eventually becomes meat, because in the live animal it's, it's muscle, but when rigor mortis has occurred, we now have meat, that time from muscle to meet. The conversion of muscle to meat matters because the amount of glycogen at time at slaughter is either going in and under normal conditions it's that pH from 7.3 we wanted to drop between 5.6 and a 5.8. Right, that's under normal conditions. If we stress that animal too hard or the animal is stressed, how about that? Like in the case of psc, they're going to burn through that glycogen pretty fast and it's going to produce an abundance amount of lactic acid. And imagine just what what acid does in general.
Speaker 4:So those proteins that are responsible for holding on to water, holding on to the structure of muscle, and you know they're going to be denatured. Hence why so? Skeletal muscle consists of 75 percent water. Imagine if those proteins can no longer hold on to that water. Guess what happens? It's going to leach out, and what comes with the water is going to be the, the globular protein known as myoglo, and that gives meat its red color. That's going to be released with the water, hence why you see a certain pigment in the tray or in a package.
Speaker 4:Right, that's just. That's not blood, as some people, most people like to refer to it. It's actually myoglobin, and that is a globular protein responsible for giving meat its red color. So that's where the paleness comes from. And then, if we think about the pale soft, the soft is because the texture is weakened. Those proteins, those structural proteins responsible for holding up the structure of meat, is denatured. So now you have a soft texture and then exudation just means water is leaching out, right? Hence why it's referred to as pale, soft and exudated. Yeah, I take my class.
Speaker 2:Yes, and Shannon yeah. I'm not sure I could pass it, but it would be very interesting to see.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but it just it makes connections right to everything really to explain what happens in there. You know. So we talked a lot about our commercial producers on the very large scale in our, you know, in the processing units and whatnot. But we still have a lot of folks that are homesteaders or backyard producers, right, and that are either producing for their own home or their small families, or even into farmers, markets and things, and they might have different challenges and different goals because they might be on a smaller scale. But what are some key things I think we can think about? If we're doing some home kill and some home slaughter and you know what's some things that we should, they should consider, you know, producers should consider when they're doing these and even in like processing, right, because there's probably certain key aspects we have to think about to make sure product stays safe for us to consume, and not just the quality of it but the safety, as we said earlier.
Speaker 4:Sure, and it's interesting that you're asking me this, because I was just telling some, some family members, this week, and I was in Texas for my nephew's graduation at Texas Tech University and this came up as a conversation about home butchering. And so you know, the one thing that I don't do is try to dissuade people from doing this, because I grew up with it and I completely understand why we do what we do. But the one thing that I will share that we didn't do growing up, that I do do today with those who want to go on farm and process and I mean that's my job is I don't tell them what to do, I just kind of just leave them some nuggets to think about when it comes to the safety, like, for example, are you, are you in street clothes when you're about to process? No, well, you shouldn't be. You know, I encourage either like a like a plastic or rubber apron or overalls. Where you were, I mean, you're going to get dirty, no doubt, but at least you could use a water hose to rinse off in between rinsing Right.
Speaker 4:The other thing is, um, either washing or rinsing your knives after so many strokes after, especially if you're going to do a very. If you're about to to, let's say, eviscerate right when you're going to split the animal open, you definitely want to wash right after that. Or if you're about to open up the hide and your right hand is deemed dirty in your left or, I'm sorry, your right hand is deemed clean, your left hand or is deemed dirty because you're holding the hide or the skin or what have you. You never want to cross them. Always use your clean hand for the carcass, because it's the carcass is sterile. What's underneath is sterile, it's what's on the outside. And now, once we start exposing, that's where we have to start thinking. We don't want to cross contaminate the potable water. No doubt, no doubt.
Speaker 4:But and and some people may not appreciate what I'm going to say next, but it's, it's reality I believe in in the three bucket system. Three buckets, you know, one is for with warm water with some dish soap. I like to use Dawn. Dawn is a very. It works great with fat If using warm water, like a five gallon bucket with Dawn and then a middle bucket of warm water just to rinse, and then I personally have an igloo, a five gallon igloo of hot water, and if you don't have the capabilities of boiling water on farm or on site.
Speaker 4:I've actually used burners that I've used for um to fry a turkey. I'll use the burner to to heat up the water and then pour it into a igloo. But I also will buy some um sanitizers that you I mean just tablets that you can buy at Walmart or Amazon and it tells you how many tablets per gallon. That the final step. So sanitizing, when you're done with everything.
Speaker 4:So you've got the the the wash bucket, you've got the rinse bucket. The rinse is where either you use warm water or you could use the hot water, but then have a sanitizer bucket, right, especially if you don't have extra knives. And, let's say, yours falls on the floor and it's mixed with whatever's on that ground you definitely want. You don't want to knives and, let's say, yours falls on the floor and it's mixed with whatever's on that ground you definitely want. You don't want to rinse, you want to wash. I'm I'm a big fan of using uh large buckets or tubs to uh to capture blood when we, when we bleed them out. If not, you will attract all these other animals, and then you have another problem, coyotes and so forth.
Speaker 4:When it comes to the organs, you have a place to hold them and they just don't fall to the ground. As well thought about was that final intervention step, right before placing into the cooler. And that is a mix, and that's mixing a one to one ratio of acidic acid, which is just white vinegar with a gallon of water. That's it. Put it in a gallon or two gallon sprayer, use that and always start from the top and work towards the bottom, because you have gravity at play. And I usually tell them marinate it. I I want to see a stream coming down at the bottom and not just a little mister like where you know we're spraying what have you? Um, because that's going to be your final intervention step. And then it all depends on your cooler. Uh, you know, usually we don't start processing until the internal temp reaches a minimum of 50 degrees internal temperature. Of course, the colder it is, the easier it's going to be to cut, because that muscle or the meat is now firm and it'll be easier to work with.
Speaker 4:But you know, those are just the little steps, just keeping your environment clean, these, you know, rinsing. In between, you can wear a cap, you don't need to wear a hairnet like we do in our. You know all these facilities, but keep your hair contained. And and you know, and as far as attire, I mean, it's just common sense. It goes back to our little, our conversation. Shannon, it's just common sense.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you're going to be touching things, finding a plastic apron, rubber apron and rinse off in between, just little things like that, and and and you know, I, I think back to when we did it growing up and I, you know, it's a good thing, my mother cooked the tar out of everything because we survived. But what happens if you don't right? I mean, and so those are just little nuggets. That that I'll, that I'll share with people. But we have to remember that, when it comes to food safety, it's not worth risking, it's not worth being lax or trying to cut corners, because it's our youth and our elderly that we have to really think about. You cannot handle food poisoning as well as you and I can. That doesn't mean that we're not going to suffer, because we will hurt but our youth, our kids, you know elderly, and to me it's just not worth it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah definitely yeah, and I think some of the tips are easy things that you can do.
Speaker 2:You know it's not a big investment, right To do those practices so well and a lot of times you have some of that and I just think, like, like, so I too much information, but I, I make sometimes I brew home homemade beer and wine, and so I was like I already have food grade sanitizer, so I'm just like it's, it's pretty easy to get a hold of some of that stuff. So, yeah, if you're processing yourself, depending on what you're doing, yeah, yeah wow, okay, we could keep, just keep going.
Speaker 2:I know because I think there's lots of things to talk about when it comes to meat quality and stuff, but I appreciate it.
Speaker 3:There's anything else that you want to share with us, Zyda, that you think we didn't talk about next to the end product and when in doubt.
Speaker 4:You know I always encourage my audience and students to reach out to your extension programs. You know this is what we're here for. I mean we're here for to serve communities as especially as your land grant institution. So, yeah, don't hesitate to reach out to your extension program with questions and if they need to get a hold of me extension program with questions and if they need to get a hold of me, you know I'm not hard to find at the Ohio State University Garcia meet science.
Speaker 3:You know there's very few of me's out there and we'll be sure to share your contact info in our show notes as well, so yeah, well thank you so much for coming on.
Speaker 2:We really appreciate it. Thank you. We hope our listeners found this informative and that it'll be useful to them.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Make sure to follow us on our social media pages the Livestock Valhalla and Livestock Extension Group. If you haven't already, Be sure to visit the UH CTAHR Extension website and our YouTube channel listed in the show notes.
Speaker 2:For additional information about this topic, like Mele said, see the show notes of the podcast and the description box of our YouTube page. Thanks for listening to the Livestock of Ala'au. Before we go, show some love for your favorite podcast by leaving us a review wherever you listen to this, and then stay tuned for next month's episode.
Speaker 3:Thanks again to our sponsors the Livestock Extension Group of the University of Hawaii, manoa College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resilience, the Center for Ag.
Speaker 1:Profitability of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program. Mahalo for listening, A hui hou.