Cecilia Ruiz, Madrid Office, Bord Bia – Irish Food Board
Bord Bia attended the Spanish Meat Industry’s annual meeting point at the 19th AECOC Congress of Meat and Processed Products that brought together 420 industry professionals to discuss the consumer demands that will mark the future of the meat sector.
These were identified as the following:
Antibiotic reduction: a global priority
The consumer is aware, concerned and increasingly demands more transparency on this issue. To implement controls to avoid the incorrect use of antibiotics is a requirement. (Carrefour Spain launched this week, under their “Act for Food” Programme, the first “antibiotic free” line of beef in Spain. It comes from animals born in selected Spanish farms and guarantees they are 100% vegetable fed, receiving vitamins and minerals for at least five months before slaughter.)
Animal welfare: increasing social sensitivity
AW is shaping the consumer purchasing decision according to a study carried out by AECOC Shopperview: 35% of consumers said that they would increase their meat consumption if it had a stamp guaranteeing animal welfare, and two out of three said they would pay more for it.
Transparency: the blockchain applied to the meat sector
Carrefour Spain is pioneering the use of blockchain technology in meat products so that the consumer can access all the information about the product they are buying via a simple QR code.
Synthetic meat: the nourishment of the future
Carlos Buxadé, emeritus professor of the Polytechnic University of Madrid, presented synthetic meat as a global necessity to meet the food needs of the increasing world population. Made from replicas of stem cells, mixed with synthetic animal fat, vegetable protein and all the nutrients you may want to add, he sees it as the unavoidable future. Even though it will still take 8 to 10 years to find this product available on the supermarket shelves, they expect to have a synthetic chicken developed by 2021 for trial. So far the response from consumers has been quite favourable: 30% would be willing to try it, 30% would do so with reservations and 40% would do so to avoid meat with antibiotics.