FSIS Announces New Guidance on Meal Kit Labeling

The Food Safety and Inspection Service is announcing the availability of the Agency’s guideline on kit products that contain meat or poultry components. The guideline will help facilities determine whether a meal kit product needs to be prepared under FSIS inspection as well as how it needs to be labeled.

There are numerous types of kit products that feature a component of meat or poultry. Kits that feature wraps, pizzas, stew, salads, fajitas or stir-fry meals are some examples. Some of the components, may require cooking...

NTF to Address State of Turkey Industry on Capitol Hill 

The National Turkey Federation (NTF) released a statement today on the announcement of a hearing before the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Livestock and Foreign Agriculture. The hearing will feature testimony from several producers from the livestock and poultry industries. John Zimmerman, a Minnesota turkey grower and NTF Executive Committee member, will represent the turkey industry.

“NTF is honored to have the opportunity to testify before the Livestock and Foreign Agriculture Subcommittee on issues affecting the turkey industry and where we find ourselves in today’s rapidly changing landscape,” said Joel Brandenberger..."

NUGGS, the World's First "Chicken" Nugget Startup, Launches

NUGGS, the "chicken" nugget startup, is pleased to announce its official launch. Founded by 19-year-old tech wunderkind and entrepreneur Ben Pasternak, NUGGS will disrupt the animal-based meat industry with its new nugget technology.

NUGGS are a more advanced version of the animal-based chicken nuggets that have dominated the market for decades. After over a year of research and development, NUGGS has developed a nugget that uses an advanced texturized pea protein technology to create a nugget with the best texture, crunch and taste...

The Makers of Hormel® Natural Choice® Add Global Inspired Flavors to Snacking Portfolio

The makers of Hormel® Natural Choice® deli meats announced today the addition of two new all-natural* deli meat and cheese snacks to its growing on-the-go snacking line up. The two new flavors are inspired by bold global flavors and offer consumers a delicious and convenient way to snack naturally. 

The newest varieties - Mediterranean style chicken paired with bruschetta jack cheese alongside garlic and herb pita chips; and chipotle chicken paired with queso quesadilla cheese and flax seed corn chips... 

All You Can Eat Riblets, Chicken Tenders & Shrimp Is Back at Applebee’s by Popular Demand 

Summer is officially here, and longer days and hot nights are the best excuses to ditch the kitchen and head out for dinner. Starting today, All You Can Eat Riblets, Chicken Tenders & Shrimp makes its triumphant return to Applebee’s® restaurants nationwide starting at only $14.99*.

With Double Crunch Shrimp joining the lineup earlier this year to make the ultimate All You Can Eat trio, we had to give it another chance to shine just in time for summertime...

USDA and FDA to Jointly Oversee Regulation of Cell-Cultured Food Products

The following is a statement from USDA Secretary Perdue and FDA Commissioner Gottlieb:

After several thoughtful discussions between our two Agencies that incorporated this stakeholder feedback, we have concluded that both the USDA and the FDA should jointly oversee the production of cell-cultured food products derived from livestock and poultry. Drawing on the expertise of both USDA and FDA, the Agencies are today announcing agreement on a joint regulatory framework wherein FDA oversees cell collection, cell banks, and cell growth and differentiation. A transition from FDA to USDA oversight will occur during the cell harvest stage. USDA will then oversee the production and labeling of food products derived from the cells of livestock and poultry. And, the Agencies are actively refining the technical details of the framework, including...

 Les Aliments O Sole Mio, Inc., Recalls Poultry Products Produced Without Benefit of Inspection

Class I Recall 
Health Risk: High

Les Aliments O Sole Mio, Inc., a Boisbriand, Quebec, Canada establishment, is recalling approximately 3,880 pounds of chicken tortellini products that were produced without the benefit of inspection by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and imported into the United States, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced today.

The heat treated, not fully cooked, not shelf stable chicken tortellini items were produced on October 20, 2018. The following products are subject to recall...

Recall Notification Report 104-2018 (Smoked Whole Chicken Products)

Class III Recall

All People’s Food, a New Castle, Del. establishment, is recalling approximately 3,904 pounds of smoked whole chicken products due to misbranding, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced today. The products contain monosodium glutamate (MSG), which is not declared on the product label.

The fully cooked, frozen smoked whole chicken items were produced on various dates from Sept. 4, 2018 through Sept. 25, 2018. The following products are subject to recall...

NCC Says USDA Must Take Part in Regulation of Cell-Cultured Meat Products

The National Chicken Council (NCC) on October 23 delivered its priorities for cell-cultured meat products as part of the first joint meeting between the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Food & Drug Administration (FDA) on the use of cell culture technology to develop products derived from livestock and poultry.

“As these new technologies are being explored, it is critical that they receive fair and proper regulatory oversight to ensure that consumers maintain the same level of confidence in the safety and labeling of these products as they have since 1906 under the Federal Meat Inspection Act for traditionally-derived red meat products and since 1957 under the Poultry Products Inspection Act for traditionally-derived poultry products,” said Ashley Peterson, Ph.D., NCC senior vice president of scientific and regulatory affairs.

To that end, the National Chicken Council believes that the following principles are essential for ensuring that cell-cultured meat products are marketed in a safe and properly labeled manner for consumers...

Agribusinesses Seek to Modernize Global Agricultural Commodity Trade Operations

Driven by opportunities to increase transparency and efficiency for customers, global agribusinesses are turning to emerging digital technologies – including blockchain and artificial intelligence options – to reduce resource- and time-intensive processes associated with the global agricultural commodity value chain.

Archer Daniels Midland Company (NYSE: ADM) (“ADM”), Bunge Limited (NYSE: BG) (“Bunge”), Cargill, Incorporated (“Cargill”), and Louis Dreyfus Company (“LDC”) are investigating ways to standardize and digitize global agricultural shipping transactions for the benefit of the entire industry. The companies also seek broad-based industry participation to promote global access and adoption.

Initially, ADM, Bunge, Cargill and LDC are focused on technologies to automate grain and oilseed post-trade execution processes, as they represent a highly manual and costly part of the supply chain, with the industry spending significant amounts of money every year moving documents around the globe. Eliminating inefficiencies would lead to shorter document-processing times, reduced wait times and better end-to-end contracting visibility.

Longer term, the companies want to drive greater reliability, efficiency and transparency by replacing other manual, paper-based processes tied to contracts, invoices and payments, with a more modern, digitally based approach. Specific benefits would include...

This Week in Retail: How Grocery Spending Stacks Up Among the States

Recent data released by the United States Census Bureau shows that meat and poultry make up the highest percentage of grocery sales in the U.S. at 10.5 percent. Produce accounts for the second highest percentage with 9.2 percent. In third place, dairy claims 7.1 percent, while frozen foods come in fourth with 5.2 percent. Deli items represent 3.8 percent of national grocery sales, narrowly beat out by soft drink and non-alcoholic beverage sales at 4 percent.  

States spending the highest proportion of their grocery sales on meat and poultry include Louisiana and Mississippi, accounting for 16.1 and 15.1 percent, respectively. Arkansas follows in third place with 14.3 percent, then Alabama with 13.8 and Oklahoma with 13.4 percent. Puerto Rico meat and poultry sales notably account for a whopping 19.8 percent of total grocery sales.  

Conversely, states spending the least amount on meat and poultry at the grocery store, or less than the national average, include Hawaii at 8.1 percent, followed by Washington and Oregon, accounting for just... 

Church's Chicken and Texas Chicken Roll Out First-Ever Global Brand Positioning

In front of a standing-room-only crowd at a San Antonio conference center, domestic and international franchisees and operational leadership from Church's Chicken and its sister chain, Texas Chicken, came together for only the second time in the history of the brands to learn how the company will strategically reposition itself moving forward. The unveiling of the brand positioning work was a highlight moment during the recent 2018 Global Excellence in Leadership Conference.

"We are one brand serving a very similar menu but we are in distinctly different stages of our life cycles.  Our domestic roots go back 66 years, but our international footprint has really just started to take off in the past few years...

This Week in Retail: Fall Transition Pace to Quicken Into October

The seasonal transition in retail meat and poultry features typically quickens considerably during October as cooler fall temperatures begin to dominate the majority of the nation.

The change in focus from grilling cuts to more roasts has been underway for a few weeks but will become even more evident in the weekly advertisements ahead. Portions of the upper Midwest are approaching the first frost of the season and have come close to that already this week.

The cooler temperatures are forecast to move eastward across the Ohio Valley as the week draws to a close, according...

Protein: Consumers Want It, But Don't Understand It

U.S. consumers have a growing appetite for all things protein. In fact, 55% of U.S. households say high protein is now an important attribute to consider when buying food for their households. Across the country, 6% of households include someone who lives on a high-protein diet. That’s more than 5.4 million people.

While the popularity of plant-based proteins is certainly growing, data shows that consumers are still choosing traditional sources of protein such as meat, eggs and dairy as their primary source. They still dominate in sales as well, as these five categories...

North Carolina Pork Council Statement on Hurricane Florence Sept. 18

In North Carolina, we raise about 8.9 million pigs on 2,100 farms. Our farmers took extraordinary measures in advance of this storm, including moving thousands of animals out of harm’s way as the hurricane approached.

The storm’s impact was felt deeply across a very large region, and the approximately 5,500 swine losses reported by the NCDA&S Emergency Programs and Veterinary Services divisions were the result of all aspects of the storm, including wind damage and flooding. We are saddened by this outcome.

We do not expect the losses to increase significantly, though floodwaters continue to rise in some locations ...

Sanderson Farms, Inc. Provides Update on North Carolina Operations

LAUREL, Miss.- Sanderson Farms, Inc. on Saturday provided an update on the status of the Company’s facilities in North Carolina following landfall of Hurricane Florence and the related severe weather and flooding in the region.

Joe F. Sanderson, Jr., chairman and chief executive officer of Sanderson Farms, Inc., said, “We are pleased to report we have not received any news of injury or loss of life among our employees and growers in the North Carolina area affected by this devastating storm. We will continue to assess the situation related to our processing plant, hatchery and feed mill in Kinston, North Carolina, and our processing plant and hatchery located in St. Pauls and Lumberton, North Carolina. An initial assessment ...

New Glass Walls Video Details Variety of Worker Safety Practices in Meat and Poultry Plants

Video is 12th in Groundbreaking Glass Walls Series

Washington, DC—The U.S. meat and poultry industry employs more than 500,000 workers and keeping those workers safe is one of the top industry priorities. For the last 25 years, worker safety has been a non-competitive issue, meaning companies openly share best practices to help improve safety for all. During this period, the meat industry partnered with the United Food and Commercial Workers and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to create the first industry specific voluntary ergonomic guidelines, and numerous other new safety steps and programs have been implemented as standard practices. Data show these have worked, with the industry reporting all-time lows for worker injury and illness rates in the most statistics released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Still, many questions persist about worker safety, so the Meat Institute developed a new Glass Walls video to take ...

Food Safety Professionals Ensure that “What’s in Your Meat” is Safe and Wholesome

WASHINGTON,— As the head of a public health agency that ensures the safety of meat and poultry, food safety is my number one priority. Americans depend on us to keep their food safe. When you see the USDA mark of inspection, you can have confidence that the products have been inspected and passed – meaning that every carcass has been inspected, samples have been taken by USDA inspectors and analyzed by scientists in a USDA laboratory, and the labeling is truthful and not misleading.

In recent years, consumers have expressed a greater interest in knowing where their food comes from, and everything associated with that process from farm to fork. As a public health regulatory agency, this movement toward greater transparency about the products we regulate is an important step for consumers to understand how food safety is achieved. Not only have we moved to proactively make otherwise non-public data available on our website, but we routinely release data in response to ...

$60 Million USDA Chicken Products Purchase Program Announced

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) yesterday announced plans to purchase up to $60 million in chicken products (to include whole bagged chicken, consumer split breast, and dark meat parts) for distribution to various food nutrition assistance programs. Purchases will be made under the authority of Section 32 of the Act of August 24, 1935, with the purpose to encourage the continued domestic consumption of these products by diverting them from the normal channels of trade and commerce. These purchases are part of the normal operations of administering Section 32 and are not related or associated with the authority or administration of possible purchases under Section 5 of the Commodity Credit Corporation related to trade mitigation.

In response to the announcement, National Chicken Council President Mike Brown released the following statement:

“On behalf of U.S. chicken producers, I want to thank Secretary Perdue for this timely action and for his steadfast leadership at USDA, and commend the dedicated officials at the Agricultural Marketing Service and Food Nutrition Service...

Continuous Improvement Evident as 191 Poultry Facilities Recognized for Safety Performance

DESTIN, Fla. – During the 2018 National Safety Conference for the Poultry Industry in Destin, Fla., 191 chicken and turkey facilities received safety awards by the Joint Industry Safety and Health Council. The companies were honored in recognition of their outstanding performance through the implementation of innovative and effective employee safety and health programs.

“Our industry has made great advancements over the past few decades to improve workplace safety. We received more applications this year for the safety awards program than ever before. It is great to see so many companies implementing new and innovative programs to promote safety in their facilities,” said Joint Industry Safety and Health Council Chair Mick Berning, Cargill.

The Joint Industry Safety and Health Council consists of members from the U.S. Poultry & Egg Association, National Chicken Council and National Turkey Federation. Collectively, the ...

USAPEEC: Morocco Agrees to Allow Commercial Imports of U.S. Poultry

The USA Poultry & Egg Council (USAPEEC) and the National Chicken Council (NCC) applaud the news announced today by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue that the government of Morocco has agreed to allow commercial imports of U.S. poultry meat and poultry products into Morocco for the first time, bringing to fruition a 14-year-long effort to gain entry to the market.

“We’ve very pleased after 14 years, since a Free Trade Agreement was signed between our countries, for poultry to finally to have access,” USAPEEC President Jim Sumner said. Sumner noted that while the initial quota for imports is limited, “The good news is that by 2024 for turkey, and by 2030 for chicken, we will have full access.”

NCC President Mike Brown praised the action, saying, “This is welcome news and I commend the...

Pilgrim’s Pride Reports Net Sales of $2.84 Billion

GAAP Operating Income of $185 Million and GAAP EPS of $0.43 for the Second Quarter of 2018. Excluding One-time Items, Adjusted Operating Income of $212 Million.

Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation reports second quarter 2018 financial results.

Second Quarter Highlights

Net Sales of $2.84 billion, +3.1% vs same quarter last year (+26.0% if excluding the Moy Park numbers from last year). Net Income of $106.5 million.

Adjusted Operating Income of $212.4 million (or a 7.5% margin), excluding the impact of grain derivative loss and one-time expense. Adjusted Operating Income margins of 6.5% in U.S., 16.6% in Mexico and 4.8% in Europe operations...

Maple Leaf Foods Advances World-Leading Animal Care Practices with Controlled Atmosphere Stunning and Remote Video Auditing at its Edmonton Poultry Facility

MISSISSAUGA, ON: - Maple Leaf Foods announced it is investing approximately $28 million to transition its Edmonton poultry processing facility to world-class controlled atmosphere stunning (CAS) technology, reflecting its commitment to building on its leadership in animal care, the poultry sector and value-added branded fresh chicken.

Maple Leaf will convert its transportation, lairage and receiving area and handling systems to optimize rest-time and create a climate-controlled environment as it implements this technology. The new lairage system will enhance lighting, air quality and temperature control, allowing chickens to rest comfortably and significantly reducing stress. The CAS technology selected is a very humane system that will ensure birds are fully insensible prior to processing. The ...

'Let FREE-dom Wing' at Hooters this National Chicken Wing Day - July 29

10 Free Boneless Wings When You Buy any 10 Wings

Close out one of America’s most celebratory months with a must-try National Chicken Wing Day offer from Hooters. On Sunday, July 29, Hooters will offer all guests 10 free Boneless Wings with the purchase of any 10 wings at participating locations nationwide. All Hooters wings, including our hand-breaded boneless wings, can be tossed in your favorite of 17 craveable sauces or one of three dry rubs – Texas BBQ, Caribbean Jerk or Garlic Habanero.

What’s more American than spending National Chicken Wing Day at Hooters to indulge in our world-famous wings? Hooters offers six wing varieties including Smoked Wings, Original-Style Wings, Naked Wings, Daytona Beach-Style Wings, Bacon Wrapped Wings and Boneless Wings. The best wings can only be served ...