The American Meat Institute (AMI) was the oldest and largest trade association representing the U.S. meat and poultry industry. In 2015, it was merged into the North American Meat Institute (NAMI).
The American Meat Institute (AMI) was the oldest and largest trade association representing the U.S. meat and poultry industry. In 2015, it was merged into the North American Meat Institute (NAMI).
Founded in 1906 in Chicago as the American Meat Packers Association, the American Meat Institute is a trade association that provides leadership to advance the interests of America’s meat and poultry packing and processing companies, and the 526,000 workers they employ, before government, media, and the public. In 1919, the organization was known as the Institute of American Meat Packers and was renamed American Meat Institute in 1940. [1]
The organization was created shortly after the passage of the Federal Meat Inspection Act and spent much its early years helping meat packers adjust to new inspection requirements. AMI moved its headquarters in 1979 to Washington, DC, where it remains today.
AMI’s membership ranged from large, publicly traded companies that employ thousands to small businesses. More than half of AMI’s members were small, family-owned businesses employing fewer than 100 individuals and one-third employ less than 50. Collectively, AMI’s 200 member companies produced 90% of the beef, pork, veal and lamb food products and 75% of the turkey food products in the U.S.[ citation needed ]
In addition to advocating before government, media and the public, AMI also provided programs, services, expositions and educational seminars to benefit its members. Through the American Meat Institute Foundation, [2] which was originally created in 1944, AMI conducted scientific research designed to help meat and poultry companies improve their plants and their products.
The National Hot Dog and Sausage Council was founded in 1994 by the American Meat Institute and is headquartered in Washington, D.C. It is an American trade association that promotes the hot dog and sausage industry. [3] [4] [5]
AMI was governed by elected leaders and staffed by 32 professionals. AMI elected leaders include five officers plus the President and CEO, as well as a 70-person Board of Directors and a 23-person executive committee. Representatives on both of these bodies included leaders in both the supplier and packer/processor segments of the industry. AMI had also created operating groups, called policy committees and advisory committees, within its membership to allow member companies to recommend AMI policies in their primary areas of interest.
AMI and the AMI Foundation sponsored annual education conferences, topical workshops, award programs, committee meetings and an annual trade show.
The annual trade show, the 2012 AMI Expo, took place May 1–3, 2012 in Dallas, Texas. The 2012 AMI Expo was co-located with the Food Marketing Institute 2012 Show, United Fresh Produce Association's United Fresh and the U.S. Food Showcase, bringing together almost 1,200 exhibitors and 25,000 attendees in Dallas. Processors from all over the world will convene to see and discuss the latest technology innovations in packaging, processing equipment, ingredients and services that are changing the meat and poultry industry. [6]
Several of the AMI Foundation's education conferences have included: the Animal Care and Handling Conference, October 19–20, 2011 in Kansas City, Missouri; the Meat and Poultry Research Conference, November 1–2, 2011 in Kansas City, Missouri; the Annual Meat Conference, February 19–21, 2012 in Orlando, Florida; and the Worker Safety, Human Resources & the Environment Conference, March 14–15, 2012 in Kansas City, Missouri. [7]
There are annual education conferences, topical workshops, award programs, committee meetings and annual trade shows. Every event was a conglomeration of thought aimed at creating opportunities for various industry processors, suppliers and press to learn, network and find solutions to various problem. Other events included: the International Production in Atlanta, GA | January 27–29, 2015, the Environmental Conferences Atlanta, GA | January 26–27, 2015, the Annual Meat Conference in Nashville, TN | February 22–24, 2015, the Worker Safety and Human Resources Conference in Kansas City, KS | April 22–23, 2015 and lastly the Animal Care and Handling Conference in Kansas City, MO | October 15–16, 2015.
The Worldwide Food Expo is a biannual event. [8]
The AMI Foundation was renamed to be the Foundation for Meat and Poultry Research and Education (Foundation) in 2016. [9] It provides research funding to universities, private institutions, non-profit organizations and other foundations to conduct research to enable the meat and poultry industry to produce better, safer products and to operate more efficiently. The Foundation publicly disseminates research findings, best practices and other educational materials on a broad range of food safety, worker safety, nutrition and consumer information projects.
Since 1999, the AMI Foundation research program has directly sponsored food safety research projects at leading universities and research labs totaling more than $8 million.
A list of Foundation completed research projects on the subjects of:
Beef is the culinary name for meat from cattle. Beef can be prepared in various ways; cuts are often used for steak, which can be cooked to varying degrees of doneness, while trimmings are often ground or minced, as found in most hamburgers. Beef contains protein, iron, and vitamin B12. Along with other kinds of red meat, high consumption is associated with an increased risk of colorectal cancer and coronary heart disease, especially when processed. Beef has a high environmental impact, being a primary driver of deforestation with the highest greenhouse gas emissions of any agricultural product.
Escherichia coli O157:H7 is a serotype of the bacterial species Escherichia coli and is one of the Shiga-like toxin–producing types of E. coli. It is a cause of disease, typically foodborne illness, through consumption of contaminated and raw food, including raw milk and undercooked ground beef. Infection with this type of pathogenic bacteria may lead to hemorrhagic diarrhea, and to kidney failure; these have been reported to cause the deaths of children younger than five years of age, of elderly patients, and of patients whose immune systems are otherwise compromised.
The Meat Institute is a non-profit, industry trade association formed in 2015 from the merger of the American Meat Institute (AMI) and the North American Meat Association (NAMA). It is headquartered in metropolitan Washington, DC.
The 2006 North American E. coli outbreak was an Escherichia coli O157:H7 outbreak from prepackaged spinach. The outbreak occurred in September 2006, and its origin was an Angus cattle ranch that had leased land to a spinach grower. At least 276 consumer illnesses and 3 deaths have been attributed as a result from the outbreak.
Intralytix, Inc. is a privately owned biotech venture incorporated in the State of Maryland on July 28, 1998. Intralytix specializes in bacteriophage based products used to control bacterial pathogens in environmental, agricultural, food processing, and medical settings.
The International Food Safety Network (iFSN) at Kansas State University imparts the opportunity of improving the overall safety of the food supply by connecting all those in the agriculture and food industry.
Food safety is used as a scientific method/discipline describing handling, preparation, and storage of food in ways that prevent foodborne illness. The occurrence of two or more cases of a similar illness resulting from the ingestion of a common food is known as a food-borne disease outbreak. This includes a number of routines that should be followed to avoid potential health hazards. In this way, food safety often overlaps with food defense to prevent harm to consumers. The tracks within this line of thought are safety between industry and the market and then between the market and the consumer. In considering industry-to-market practices, food safety considerations include the origins of food including the practices relating to food labeling, food hygiene, food additives and pesticide residues, as well as policies on biotechnology and food and guidelines for the management of governmental import and export inspection and certification systems for foods. In considering market-to-consumer practices, the usual thought is that food ought to be safe in the market and the concern is safe delivery and preparation of the food for the consumer. Food safety, nutrition and food security are closely related. Unhealthy food creates a cycle of disease and malnutrition that affects infants and adults as well.
Cargill Meat Solutions is a subsidiary of the Minneapolis-based multinational agribusiness giant Cargill Inc, that comprises Cargill's North American beef, turkey, food service and food distribution businesses. Cargill Meat Solutions' corporate office is located in Wichita, Kansas, United States. Jody Horner is the division's president.
William "Bill" Marler is an American personal injury lawyer specializing in cases involving foodborne illnesses. He is the managing partner of Marler Clark, a law firm based in Seattle, Washington, that focuses on food safety litigation.
XL Foods Inc. is a Canadian meat packing company. The company is a subsidiary of Nilsson Brothers Inc. based in Edmonton, Alberta. From 2009 until 2013, XL Foods' Lakeside Packers Division was located just west of Brooks, Alberta, in Newell County. This facility was the second largest beef-processing operation in Canada. During this period the company was by far the largest employer in Brooks, employing more than 2,200 people in 2012.
Adulteration is a legal offense and when the food fails to meet the legal standards set by the government, it is said to have been Adulterated Food. One form of adulteration is the addition of another substance to a food item in order to increase the quantity of the food item in raw form or prepared form, which results in the loss of the actual quality of the food item. These substances may be either available food items or non-food items. Among meat and meat products some of the items used to adulterate are water or ice, carcasses, or carcasses of animals other than the animal meant to be consumed. In the case of seafood, adulteration may refer to species substitution (mislabeling), which replaces the species identified on the product label with another species, or undisclosed processing methods, in which treatments such as additives, excessive glazing, or short-weighting are not disclosed to the consumer.
Raw meat generally refers to any type of uncooked muscle tissue of an animal used for food. In the meat production industry, the term ‘meat’ refers specifically to mammalian flesh, while the words ‘poultry’ and ‘seafood’ are used to differentiate between the tissue of birds and aquatic creatures.
Michael R. Taylor is an American lawyer who has played leadership roles in the US Food and Drug Administration, agrochemical company Monsanto, and law firm King & Spalding. He currently co-chairs the board of STOP Foodborne Illness, a non-profit that supports victims of serious illness and their families in efforts to strengthen food safety culture and practices in government and industry.
Kevin's Law was proposed legislation that would have given the United States Department of Agriculture the power to close down plants that produce contaminated meat.
Escherichia coli is a gram-negative, rod-shaped bacterium that is commonly found in the lower intestine of warm-blooded organisms (endotherms). Most E. coli strains are harmless, but pathogenic varieties cause serious food poisoning, septic shock, meningitis, or urinary tract infections in humans. Unlike normal flora E. coli, the pathogenic varieties produce toxins and other virulence factors that enable them to reside in parts of the body normally not inhabited by E. coli, and to damage host cells. These pathogenic traits are encoded by virulence genes carried only by the pathogens.
The 1992–1993 Jack in the Box E. coli outbreak occurred when the Escherichia coli O157:H7 bacterium killed four children and infected 732 people across four US states. The outbreak involved 73 Jack in the Box restaurants in California, Idaho, Washington, and Nevada, and has been described as "far and away the most infamous food poison outbreak in contemporary history." The majority of the affected were under 10 years old. Four children died and 178 others were left with permanent injury including kidney and brain damage.
American Public Health Association v. Butz, 511 F.2d 331 was a United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit case argued on January 22, 1974, and decided on December 19, 1974.
Ground meat, called mince or minced meat outside North America, is meat finely chopped by a meat grinder or a chopping knife. A common type of ground meat is ground beef, but many other types of meats are prepared in a similar fashion, including pork, veal, lamb, goat meat, and poultry.
AMI operates several websites with information for industry members, consumers and the media:
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