TIA has received $1.5 million to develop the strategies by Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) and will run for three years under the head of associate professor Tom Ross.

“We know how long meat retains excellent quality at ideal storage temperatures, but we can now easily track meat temperature in ‘real time’ using data loggers,” associate professor Ross said.

There are two main components of the research. The first will look at the shelf-life of meat and will develop a science-based decision-support tool that enables better definition, manipulation and management of vacuum packed beef and lamb shelf-life. The second part of the research will be to optimise and apply commercially a new technology, based on earlier basic research by the group, to reduce bacterial contamination on meat carcasses.  TIA is a joint initiative between UTAS and the state government.