Beef Innovation at the CBCE
One of the mandates of the Canadian Beef Centre of Excellence (CBCE) is to create value with beef and veal through industry training and product development. One area that the CBCE’s Director Marty Carpenter and Technical Manager Abe van Melle see as an opportunity to create more value with beef and veal is through opportunities in developing creative options with trim in the foodservice and retail meat operation in Canada and around the world.
On February 8th – 9th the CBCE hosted a curriculum development session with John Meyer and Stefan Springer from Reiser Canada, a large manufacturer of butchery equipment. They also teamed up with Hermann Laue a spice manufacturer, and utilized beef and veal from Cargill and Montpak. The purpose of the sessions was to develop exceptional further-processed, value added products and building the structure of a curriculum that can be used with other retailers visiting the CBCE.
Marty and Abe worked with Reiser and Hermann Laue to explore new flavor trend options and value added options utilizing trim from Canadian beef and veal. They explored meatballs, sausages, burgers, meatloaves and stuffed beef products like cutlets rouladens and paupiettes. The emphasis was to create trendy products that would stimulate interest with the retailer and liven up the meat case for consumers. Products such as the spicy Jamaican jerk beef and veal burger, and the very Canadian maple beef bacon and cheddar burgers were explored and created. Rouladens stuffed with a sriracha flavored beef and veal sausages were investigated as well. Some innovative products were developed with a very local feel like maple saskatoon beef and veal sausage, and others were very ethnically inspired, like koftas (middle eastern ground meat kabob), and a unique chilli chipotle beef and veal sausage were developed and tested.
This was a very positive foundation for a curriculum around beef and veal trim for brand partners who have been looking for options with beef and veal trim. Canada Beef is positioning the CBCE as a leader in developing great options for the foodservice and retail operators and ultimately the consumer.
