S-292: Problem Statement and Justification

     Poultry products appear in the diet of many people throughout the world.  With the exception of strict vegetarians, there are few if any social or religious stigmas attached to the use of poultry in the diet.  The significant growth of this industry over the past 20 years is attributed, in part, to the significant development and marketing of value-added, further processed products.  This marketing shift away from ice-packed whole carcasses or parts to further processed, valued-added products is credited to a proactive, vertically-integrated industry seeking to respond to new and changing consumer preferences; to a better understanding of the basic physical, chemical, and microbiological properties of poultry meat; and to the development of new processing techniques and technologies for producing quality products with improved safety and shelf life. 

     The poultry industry continues to grow at unprecedented rates while consumer life styles and food preferences continue to change.  Convenience foods that are consumer-friendly, affordable, innovative, nutritious, safe, and able to satisfy all of the basic consumer quality preferences continue to direct the poultry industry’s marketing path.  To meet these needs, poultry producers and processors with the aid of University-directed research such as through the efforts of Regional Research Projects are seeking to develop environmentally-responsible, advanced production and processing technologies for use in producing consumer-oriented products.  These changing technologies will require new basic knowledge about production and processing efficiencies, functional properties, stability and safety of poultry and egg products.  Besides industry efforts, much of the fundamental research that supports these efforts can best be achieved by coordinating and directing the efforts and expertise of individuals within experiment stations into regional efforts that prevent duplication and take advantage of unique capabilities of individuals and facilities within different geographical locations. 

     The intent of this project is to efficiently utilize the special capabilities of the cooperators and their respective facilities to achieve the overall project objective of “improving consumer safety, consumer acceptance and the commercial profitability of poultry meat and eggs by solving critical problems related to the quality of poultry meat and eggs; specifically color, flavor, or texture of the product, and the safety of poultry meat and eggs; specifically microbial colonization, contamination, and subsequent pathogen growth.”