Beef and Pork Byproducts: Enhancing the U.S. Meat Industry’s Bottom Line
Daniel Marti,
Rachel Johnson, and
Kenneth Mathews
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Beef and pork production yields
more than just what is seen on people's plates. Byproducts--edible
offal, inedible offal, blood, hides, and rendered products--include
virtually all parts of the live animal that are not part of the
dressed carcass. These items constitute an estimated 30 percent of
the liveweight of a hog and about 44 percent of the liveweight of
cattle. A myriad of uses for these items--leather products from
hides; lubricants; plastics; soaps; glycerin; gelatins; and other
industrial, household, cosmetic, pharmaceutical, and medical
supplies--allow the meat industry to capture additional revenue and
avoid costs for disposing of certain edible and nonedible parts of
the animal.
Exports and other markets for
animal byproducts contribute to the value and profitability of the
meat processing industry and mean higher livestock prices. ERS
research indicates that a $1 increase in the value of byproducts to
processors adds about 10 cents to the average price paid per
hundredweight to producers of fed steers (slaughter cattle that
have been finished on concentrated feed on a per hundredweight
basis). Conversely, consumer prices for other beef products are
lower than they would be without byproduct sales because the
processing costs to wholesalers of the entire animal are spread
across both byproducts and meat.
In the U.S., edible offal (animal
organs such as liver, heart, and stomach) is used to produce
sausages, hot dogs, and other processed meat products; it is also a
major ingredient in pet foods. In foreign markets, demand for U.S.
edible offal, including variety meats (edible byproducts that are
segregated, chilled, and processed under sanitary conditions and
are inspected for sanitation and wholesomeness by the U.S. Meat
Inspection Service), is high because of its superior quality and
low prices relative to domestic products. Over the past 10 years,
byproducts accounted for more than 35 percent (volume) of U.S. beef
and veal exports and 23 percent (volume) of U.S. pork exports.
Together, edible beef/veal and pork byproduct exports account for
more than 16 percent of the value of total U.S. beef/veal and pork
exports. In 2010, beef/veal and pork edible offal exports reached a
record level of $1.2 billion, $135 million more than the previous
record set in 2009.