Feeding and meat quality – a future approach

The continuous demand for high standards of quality assurance in the meat production of today and tomorrow calls for development of new tools capable of meeting such demands. The present paper aims to re-think the traditional way of using feeding as a quality control tool in the production of meat and to introduce the potential of a nutrigenomic approach as a first step in the development of pro-active quality control systems which fulfil future demands from industry and consumers. A few chosen examples present how specific feeding strategies can manipulate (i) muscle protein turnover and thereby meat tenderness as well as the cost and sustainability of the production and (ii) muscle energy levels at slaughter and thereby the pH decline, water-holding capacity and the sensory characteristics of meats. The examples are discussed in relation to exploiting essential and basic understanding of physiological and physical processes, which can subsequently be included in a systems biology line of thought of importance for development of unique decision support systems in future meat production.