Bioactives Workshop II

Summary

MLA’s second bioactives workshop was attended by 52 people. Participants were meat processors, bioactives value adders, researchers and regulators. The workshop was intended to build on the 2005 workshop with a program that discussed markets and opportunities for collection of bioactives from the meat industry, overcoming hurdles including regulatory impositions and maximizing competitive advantages.

The following is a summary of key points made during the workshop.
Following the previous workshop and other preliminary investigations, MLA has developed a 5-year plan for building capabilities for bioactives production in the meat industry. The plan was introduced at the workshop by Dr Philip Franks, Manager of Value Adding. Dr Franks told the audience that MLA’s target is to facilitate the development of a $200 million business in bioactives from the meat industry over the next 5 years.

It is expected that 5 new bioactives businesses will be created within the
meat industry and that the businesses will return $50 million profit. At the previous workshop 50 potential bioactives from the meat industry were identified. Professor Milton Hearn of Monash University has now suggested over 200 potential bioactives. The theme of the latest workshop was to set the framework for evaluating and selecting from the 200 potential bioactives with the aim of hitting the target of five success stories in five years time.

The workshop included a program of speakers and case studies to evaluate how examples of bioactives opportunities fit into a meat business.