Lesson 14 the meat industry: general issues

1.Read and memorize the following words:

foodstuff ['fu: dstʌ f] продовольство, харчові продукти

e.g. We buy all necessary foodstuff at the supermarket.

household ['haʊ shə ʊ ld] домашнє господарство, домочадці (всі, хто проживає у конкретному будинку); домашній

e.g. He married and set up his own household. This form of food poisoning can be prevented by common kitchen cleanliness, proper cooking and ordinary household refrigeration.

cereal ['sı ə rı ə l] зернові культури, крупа

e.g. People who eat sweets or chocolates between meals will have a reduced appetite for vegetables, cereals or meat at the next main meal.

animal husbandry ['æ nı m(ə)l 'hʌ zbə ndrı ] тваринництво

e.g. Animal husbandry is an important branch of agriculture in Ukraine.

facilities [fə 'sı lı tı z] обладнання, пристосування

e.g. The college has excellent sporting facilities.

capacity [kə 'pæ sı tı ] ємкість, потужність, продуктивність

e.g. Is the factory operating at full capacity?

ratio ['reı ʃ ı ə ʊ ] співвідношення

e.g. The ratios of 1 to 5 and 20 to 100 are the same.

to update [ˌ ʌ p'deı t] обновити, привести у відповідність до сучасних стандартів

e.g. First of all they decided to update the equipment at the plant.

primal ['praı ml] основний, первинний

e.g. Sausages are made using trimmings from primal cuts, which are ground and mixed with spices and fillers such as grain or bread.

competitive [kə m'petə tı v] конкурентний, конкурентноздатний

e.g. You shouldn’t forget about the competitive nature of business.

to disrupt [ˌ dı s'rʌ pt] роздробити, руйнувати

e.g. An accident has disrupted railway services into and out of the city.

2.Match the words with their definitions.

3.Read and translate the text.

In general meat and further processed meat products are important, highly appreciated foodstuffs, both from an organoleptic and a nutritional point of view. When available, meat supplies a considerable share of the daily requirements of protein, fat and vitamins indeed. However, meat is a relative expensive food item and its consumption largely depends on the available household budget.

Major world producers and exporters of meat are by areas:

· the US, mainly producing beef, pork and poultry; Canada for beef and pork;

· the EU, and in particular Denmark for pork, the Netherlands for pork and poultry, and France for poultry;

· Argentina for beef and Brazil for poultry;

· Australia and New Zealand mainly producing beef, sheep and lamb.

Most of these countries has large availability of feed such as cereals, either because they directly produce them or because of cheap feed import, as for the Netherlands. The livestock breeding activity is indeed mainly influenced by availability and price of feed. The above countries have largely invested to improving genetics, animal husbandry, feeding regimes and veterinary controls. As a result, the standard quality of their livestock is high. The quality of meat is a direct result of high quality livestock, suitable and efficient slaughtering facilities and equipment. For keeping slaughtering costs down, the utilisation level of slaughter-lines should be high. For this reason, major meat producers focus on concentration and specialisation to rise the capacity and the use ratio of slaughter-lines. These countries have indeed hugely invested to update their meat processing facilities to the highest standards and degrees of economical and technical efficiency.

Most slaughterhouses are just “kill and cut” plants and their main products are meat carcasses, primal cuts and quarters. Further meat processing takes place in plants specialising in certain products like sausages, cooked ham, bacon or canned products. In the US pork slaughter-lines have often a capacity of about 1, 000 hogs per hour, while in the EU most slaughterhouses run a capacity of 500-600 hogs per hour to stay on the market. However, in Denmark the hourly capacity is limited to 360 hogs per slaughter-line due to more stringent sanitary regulations set by that government. For this reason most of the Danish slaughterhouses have two or even four slaughter-lines to remain competitive.

The quality and price of the final meat products is thus the result of quality and efficiency of livestock production (determining production costs), quality and efficiency of slaughtering (slaughtering costs) and quality and efficiency of further meat processing (processing costs). The meat sector as a whole is an integral part of a very complicated food chain. All chain links have great influence on each other. The production of feed components is linked to the activities of feed mills, the livestock production to the feed industry, the slaughterhouses to farmers and meat processing plants, the latter to sales at both wholesale and retail levels. The final consumers and their attitude to meat products are very important to the whole process. Indeed if there is no sale of the final products the whole meat sector will be disrupted.

4.Answer the following questions.

1.Why are meat and further processed meat consider to be important and appreciable foodstuff?

2.What are major world producers and exporters of meat?

3.What is the livestock breeding activity mainly influenced by?

4.What do major meat producer focus on?

5.What are the main products of most slaughterhouses?

6.Where does further meat processing take place?

7.What is the capacities of slaughterhouses in the US, EU, Denmark?

8.What do the quality and price of the final meat products depend on?

9.In what way do the links of food chain (including meat sector) influence on each other?

5.Quote the sentences in which the following word combinations are used.

6.Give the English equivalents to the following.

7.Explain the meaning of the following words and word combinations without translating them into Ukrainian.

8.Speak on the meat industry.