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mEATquality studies whether tastes differ
mEATquality is a new European project that will study all aspects of pork and broiler meat production. The main ambition of mEATquality is to provide consumers with better-quality meat and the animals with a high level of welfare. An important question in this respect is whether the taste of the meat differs per livestock farming system. Wageningen University & Research is the coordinator of this study.
Project coordinator Hans Spoolder, senior animal welfare scientist at Wageningen Livestock Research, about the ambitions: “We want to know whether the taste of meat from pigs and chickens in extensive livestock systems differs from the meat taste from intensive livestock systems, for example because the animals can move around more or are given different feed.”
This is achieved through developing scientific knowledge and practical solutions with farmers and chain partners. Additional aims are a reduction of environmental concerns and improvement of economic sustainability of the chain.
European project
mEATquality is funded under the Horizon 2020 program. The mEATquality project started in October 2021 and focuses on research towards quality, safety and authenticity of meat as part of the “Farm to Fork” strategy of the EU.
mEATquality partners
The project aims will be achieved through a multidisciplinary team of 18 partners organizations representing 7 EU countries. mEATquality is coordinated by Wageningen Research (The Netherlands) and the consortium consists of 7 academic partners, 5 scientific research centers, 2 industry partners and 3 organizations that represent the organic or conventional meat chains.