Science Café Fort Collins — May 14, 2008

Location	Lucky Joe’s, 25 Old Town Square
Led by	Dr. Keith E. Belk, Professor of Animal Sciences, CSU
Topic:	How Safe is our Meat?

Belk led a discussion of the current status of public safety with respect to U.S. beef. He provided information on microbiological hazards, mad-cow disease, cancer, cloning, and other current topics of interest to the consumer. Many supermarkets across the country now feature fresh beef products labeled as “organic,” “natural,” or “grass fed.” The discussion looked at the research conducted on all three of these kinds of beef and the science of differences – chemical, physical, microbiological and organoleptic – and how these differ from what we consider “conventional” beef products. He also talked about the safety of meat products in other countries, contrasted with the safety of U.S. products.

Meet Keith Belk:
Keith Belk, a Professor with the Center for Meat Safety & Quality in the Department of Animal Sciences at CSU, has extensive contact with the livestock and red meat industry. He has been employed in the private sector by Safeway Stores, Inc., and by the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service in Washington, DC, as an International Marketing Specialist.

At Colorado State University since 1995, he conducts issues-oriented research addressing meat quality and safety, international marketing, and quality/safety management. Of particular importance to the red meat industry, he has conducted research to develop Total Quality Management systems to improve the palatability of fresh beef, instrument grading technology, Multiple Hurdles interventions systems for improving the safety of red meat products, decontamination technologies for beef and pork variety meats, management systems to reduce the incidence of dark cutting beef carcasses, beef and lamb quality assurance verification programs within Colorado and nationwide, marination systems to improve consumer satisfaction with whole-muscle beef products, modern high-voltage electrical stimulation systems for beef carcasses to improve beef palatability, methods for managing use of growth promoting implants to minimize their negative impact on beef palatability, and dietary alpha-tocopheryl acetate supplementation programs for cattle to improve retail display life of fresh beef products.

Since 2003, Dr. Belk has been heavily involved in U.S. government efforts to restore international trade that was lost following detection of BSE in Mabton, Washington, and has conducted numerous research studies to reduce likelihood that BSE could be transmitted to consumers of beef products. Since joining the faculty at CSU, he has made over 368 external presentations and has served on the advisory committee of 69 graduate students. He has served as principal or co-principal investigator on research grants totaling in excess of $9.9 million, has authored or co-authored 112 refereed articles, and was the primary Inventor on two patents. He served as Assistant Professor and state Meat Extension Specialist between 1995 and 2000 and as Associate Professor between 2001 and 2004. He was appointed to the Editorial Board for the Journal of Animal Science in 1997, and was appointed in 1997 as Secretary of a Technical Advisory Group to the American National Standards Institute for establishing U.S. positions on ISO standards related to meat products.

Dr. Belk was awarded the Achievement Award by the American Meat Science Association in 1998, the Western Section Young Scientist Award by the American Society of Animal Science in 1999, was listed as one of “Meat Processing” magazines “Rising Stars” in 2001, received the Meat Research Award from the American Society of Animal Science in 2003, and received the Distinguished Service Award from the U.S. Meat Export Federation in 2004. He served on several Official U.S. Missions to Japan and other countries in 2004-2005, and received a Marketing Assistance Award from the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service for those efforts in 2006.