Outreach Program – Meat Safety & Quality

The mission for Colorado State University’s Center for Meat Safety & Quality (CMSQ) utilizes their research to target issues ranging from international to individual needs. CMSQ aims to address national and global food safety and quality issues, to assure that consumers worldwide have access to a dependable supply of safe, high quality and affordable food products, to educate and train undergraduate and graduate students to assume food safety positions in industry, and to provide outreach education to the public. Want to learn more about the goals and capabilities of the CMSQ: CMSQ Goals, Priorities and Capabilities.

Food Safety is a dynamic and challenging concern which requires a generation of new information and continuous re-evaluation of existing knowledge in order to address newly developed, perceived or recognized threats or risks to human health, and to develop effective and economic means for their control, without adverse effects on product quality. The Center for Meat Safety & Quality of Colorado State University has available expertise to address all issues of meat and food safety, defense, and quality, and to contribute to the enhancement of food safety worldwide. CMSQ scientists have interacted and lectured in more than 20 countries, on top of their partnerships in over 30 groups within the United States.

Scientists at the CMSQ have interacted with management personnel of the National Pork Board, National Meat Association, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, AMS-USDA, Southwest Meat Association, American Meat Science Association, National Institute for Animal Agriculture, American Association of Meat Processors, National Renderers Association, APHIS-USDA, FSIS-USDA, U.S. Meat Export Federation, FDA-USDHHS and American Meat Institute, as well as with cattlemen, cattle feeders, meat packers, processors and retailers on issues related to foreign animal disease, meatborne pathogens, quality/palatability/shelf-life, value-determining characteristics, export-market access, traceability and meat-waste disposal. CMSQ scientists are Food Safety Communicators for the Institute of Food Technologists, leaders of the IFT Extension Division, National Good Agricultural Practices Program and Produce Safety Alliance Collaborators, adjunct faculty members of the Colorado School of Public Health, partners with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and CU Denver as one of five national Centers for Excellence in Food Safety, and board members of the Colorado Food Systems Advisory Council. They have partnered with the state Department of Agriculture to develop the COFarmtoMarket.com website and on-line GAPs training modules. These CMSQ scientists have been interviewed by persons from the local, state, national and international media, appeared on television and on expert panels, have participated in teleconferences and have worked diligently—behind the scenes—to help shareholders in the meat industry mitigate risk and maximize profitability. Faculty members of the CMSQ have delivered lectures on meatborne pathogens in more than 20 countries and have traveled to Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Europe, Russia, Egypt, Vietnam, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Taiwan and China as members of U.S. trade teams. A test developed by CSU for demonstrating safety (freedom from central nervous system tissue) of U.S. beef relative to Specified Risk Material removal in U.S. beef packing plants is used throughout the world. It is this kind of expertise that makes the CMSQ unique. CMSQ scientists were heavily involved in helping the public of Colorado and the nation in better understanding the 2011 Listeria/cantaloupe deadly outbreak traced to Colorado through local and national media outlets.

CSU Meat Sales & Market: Help support the CMSQ Program and stock your freezer at the same time! Our facility processes beef, lamb, pork, and sausages. And our top sellers include: Beef New York Strip Steak, Beef Top Sirloin Steaks, Beef Bottom Round Roast, Fresh Bratwurst, and Ground Pork. Pick up your meat today! or contact our Meat Lab Manager, Joe Bullard, at (970) 491-6267.
Meat Retail Identification: Based on the American Royal National 4-H Retail Meat Identification Codes, our Meat Retail Identification Chart serves as a reference material for 4H and FFA instructors across the state and U.S.