Commercial Implications

Important implications of the laboratory and in-plant validation trials are noted below.  These must be considered when using SmartStretch within hot boning processors in order to achieve tenderness and other meat quality benefits.  

• A machine used for SmartStretch must be able to consistently stretch each and every primal by at least 20% (preferably 30% to allow an acceptable margin of error). 
• While poor quality (tougher) animals may benefit most from stretching, very tough primals may not benefit enough from SmartStretch to still reach acceptable shear force levels.  This same limitation applies to other methods of increasing tenderness (such as ageing or ‘Tenderstretch').  Hence the animal type processed will affect the ability of the processor to benefit from SmartStretch.
• Other treatments such as injection may be combined with SmartStretch so as to reach acceptable shear force levels.  For example, trials that treated cold boned topsides with ‘kiwi fruit solution' gave a clear improvement in tenderness of the order of 28%.
• Primals stretched via SmartStretch will, after 24 hours, achieve a similar result as ageing for 20-28 days (although the mechanism is different).  If stretched as well as aged, tenderness will tend to converge to be the same as if the primal was only aged. 
• Not all primals will benefit equally from stretching.  Those primals whose fibres are aligned in one direction will benefit most. 
• Regardless of the animal type, primal type or final tenderness achieved, stretching reduces the variability between carcasses, with this being an important commercial benefit.