Meat&Poultry - December 2011 - IPE - 15

2011 – Year in Review
Praxair Technology
(Continued from Page 11) “Our coalition is hopping mad, and don’t think for a minute we are going to let Big Meat and complicit politicians get away with this outrage,” fumed Wenonah Hauter, executive director of the activist group Food & Water Watch, in a statement. “We applaud Congress for their strong bipartisan support in recognizing that USDA’s actions during the rulemaking process exceeded congressional intent,” said a statement from Mike Brown, president of the National Chicken Cou nci l, which helped lead the lobbyHauter ing campaign. Industry, however, did not fare so well on other regulatory matters. The Food & Drug Administration put an end to a long-running controversy when it prevailed upon Pfi zer Inc. to withdraw its 3-Nitro product from the market. With arsenic as one of its chemical building blocks, 3-Nitro cleared up parasitic infect ions i n a n imals and promoted growth. B ut t he fac t t h at compa n ies del iberately fed arseBrown nic to chickens and turkeys was the source of much horrifi ed comment over the years. FDA’s research found no harmful levels of arsenic in meat, but the agency made it clear it wanted the product off the market, and Pfi zer complied. (The company had acquired the 3-Nitro issue when it bought Alpharma.) cessing. Almost 25 percent of the industry’s capacity is now owned by foreign interests. “Foreign owners are focused on global protein markets, and they have seen great value in the U.S. chicken industry,” says Lovette. He notes that foreign companies have made f ive US acquisitions since 2009, including t hree in 2011 – O.K. Foods of Fort Smith, Ark., was bought by Mexico’s Industrias Bachoco; bankrupt Allen Family Foods of Seaford, Del., was auctioned off to Harim USA, a unit of South Korea’s largest chicken company; and the North Carolina operations of Townsends, Inc., were

ColdFront™ Straight Tunnel Freezer;
custom-built to ﬁt available space.

See us at IPE booth #4213 With the ColdFront™ straight tunnel

“Foreign owners are focused on global protein markets, and they have seen great value in the US chicken industry.”
bought by U k rainian billionaire Oleg Bakhmatyuk. Previously, JBS acquired Pilgrim’s, and Marfrig, also from Brazil, bought Keystone. Bakhmatyuk apparently soured quickly on his US acquisition and ordered the plants shut down. The other owners, however, seem to be committed to the US market and to international trade. “T h rough ou r k nowledge of Asian consumer preferences, we plan to expand product offerings to include premium, value-added products that can be sold throughout the United States and Asia,” said Hong Kuk Kim, chairman of the Harim Group, in a statement discussing his intentions for Allen Family Foods.

freezer, you get high volume throughput in a small footprint, which increases production while conserving valuable ﬂoor space in your operations area.

High volume & small footprint • • • • Increase production capacity Improve product quality N2 or CO2 cooling options Praxair Food Lab support for optimal performance • Safety audit • Customized production system

Praxair can help you optimize your cooling process and improve results.

Visit us at praxairfood.com or use your smartphone to scan the QR code to see a video of the freezer in action.

Foreign investment picks up Strong exports
A trend that accelerated in 2011 is foreign ownership of US broiler proThe export market continued to be a bright spot for the US poultry
www.MeatPoultry.com P-10416-4 • December 2011 • Meat&Poultry • 15

http://www.praxairfood.com http://www.MeatPoultry.com

Meat&Poultry - December 2011

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Meat&Poultry - December 2011