JBS Australia adopts national-first beef eating quality technology

JBS Australia has become the first meat processor to install AI-powered technology to grade beef quality. We explore how it will work.

A major Australian processor will set a national first as it implements carcass grading technology in its beef operations.

Beef producers will soon have meat eating quality data at their fingertips, after JBS Australia has installed camera grading technology at three of its eight sites.

The product, MEQ camera predicts a beef marbling score, ribeye area, preliminary yield grade and yield grade. Twelve AI models power the machine and work through a smartphone application and an integrated 3D depth camera to provide a real-time image and video of the animal.

MEQ camera product in action. Picture: Supplied

JBS Australia marketing and innovation general manager Michael Finucan said it meant further transparency, consistency and quality.

“There’s certainly potential for (a premium), it gives us the baseline if we want to do that,” he said.

Mr Finucan said the company spent more than two years working on the project, with graders analysing more than 10,000 bodies to better understand the technology.

The company’s initiative was in partnership with Meat and Livestock Australia, MEQ, and Australian Meat Processor Corporation.

In Western Australia, V&V Walsh general manager Brent Dancer said the “technology is coming” to the domestic processing industry, as V&V Walsh also hoped to implement similar technology in the next 12-18 months.

“On the consumer side it’s about being able to create those new brands and really have that segregation will be fantastic to get that value pull through and hopefully that can flow back through to the farmgate,” he said.

“It’s not going to be an overnight thing, it will take a bit of time for us to develop those markets and see what kind of premium can be gained in the market.”

MEQ co-founder Remo Carbone said there had been widespread interest in the technology across Australia, and it would allow for closer relationships in the supply chain.

“It’s a big deal, it’s the first time this grading has been undertaken for carcass evaluation in a meaningful way,” he said.

MEQ co-founder Remo Carbone. Picture: Supplied

The MEQ camera product recently received its US Department of Agriculture certification for its MEQ camera product.

It is the first video technology of its kind to achieve the approval and the first technology certified in more than 15 years, after more than 10,000 carcasses analysed in a trial process.

Mr Carbone said the new certification validated the product’s accuracy, consistency and application for meat quality grading, and would be a major milestone for “the entire US beef industry”.

“What we bring to the grading of carcasses is a much richer experience and the supply chain impact, the quality of data we capture, the quality of video we capture, it can be used as a tool and feedback,” he said.

US processors including Sustainable Beef at Nebraska are already using the technology.

Mr Carbone said since 2022 the business had grown from few customers to operating across six countries including across Europe and the US.