Chef instructors and students from the Philadelphia Art Institute got the chance to get a little closer to the animals they’ll one day be cooking. A beef checkoff “Meat Your Beef” channel influencer immersion event, sponsored by the Northeast Beef Promotion Initiative (NEBPI), gave the group a chance to tour a modern-day beef processing plant and nearby beef feedlot in Eastern Pennsylvania.
The experience started with an in-depth look at beef processing with a tour of the JBS Beef Plant located in Souderton. Most of the chef instructors and culinary students had never seen a modern-day processing plant and the tour of JBS exposed them to the entire process, from live cattle all the way through to boxed beef.
“It is important for a culinary student to see meat fabrication from a large production site,” said Chef Instructor with the Philadelphia Art Institute, Chef Dan D’Angelo. “The students learned that safety and sanitation is the number one priority. Seeing how the meat is butchered at a large production area makes them appreciate the art of butchery. The experience was great to see first-hand how cattle go from start to the finished center-of-the-plate protein.”
Heather Mangieri, Owner and Nutrition Consultant at Nutrition Check-Up, LLC, and spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, gave a beef nutrition presentation during the lunch hour. Culinary students receive a wealth of information about beef cookery in their culinary classes but nutrition classes are oftentimes limited. Mangieri’s presentation walked them through basic nutrition, the nutrient profile of beef and its role in a healthy diet.
The group toured the Palmer Feedlot in Shartlesville, Pennsylvania, a family owned operation of father and son Tom and Bill Palmer, who led the farm tour by explaining the role of the various feedstuffs used on the farm, how they mix and feed rations, cattle care and handling and how they select quality cattle.
More information about the beef checkoff’s “Meat Your Beef” events can be obtained from Christie Brown cbrown@pabeef.org or by visiting the NEBPI’s “Northeast Loves Beef” Facebook page.