Meat Preservation Technologies in Kenya’s Pastoral Areas with Potential for Market Competitiveness Improvement Josphat Gichure Catherine Kunyanga Pius Mathi Jasper Imungi

The average worldwide losses and waste per year along the meat value chain estimated at ≈20 % (Parfitt et al., 2010). Low-income countries experience greatest losses (Parfitt et al., 2010; Cederberg et al., 2011) - caused by: – underutilization of edible by-products, – inappropriate post-harvest handling – inappropriate preservation technologies Introduction ≥ 40%

Introduction cont… Kenyan case: Approx 67 % of red meat is from pastoral production systems (IPAR, 2004). Post-harvest losses in pastoral areas are caused by poor handling, processing and preservation technologies – Problem: these technologies not standardized and no attempts have been made to mainstream into formal markets (Gichure et al., 2014).

Introduction cont… Preservation of pastoral meat generally through reduction of water activity (Gichure et al., 2014) – main techniques: sun-drying‚ deep-frying and salting of whole-muscle tissues. – proteolysis, lipolysis, oxidation and microbial spoilage main cause of spoilage of pastoral meat products (Zhou et al., 2010)

Introduction cont… What is a competitive product??? One with ability to sustainably gain & maintain market share – Market share and competitiveness depends on consumers’ perceived quality cues based on needs and expectations – Quality cues for meat products include appearance, freshness and safety, taste, amount of visible fat/ oil, texture, tenderness and convenience and perceived quality

Introduction cont… Market competitiveness of food product also based on competitive potential, performance measure and competitive process; – Performance measure depends on how well the products are positioned relative to competing products – Competitive potential depends on availability and quantity of inputs, cost of raw materials and productivity – Competitive process measures degree by which competitive potential is converted into competitive performance.

Research objective This research seeks to improve meat preservation technologies in pastoral area to enhance competitiveness of selected local products Specifically, To identify the most consumed pastoral meat products To assess the technologies used to preserve pastoral meat To establish the most competitive products based on competitive potential, performance measure and quality cues

Justification Rapid urbanization in Africa has increased demand for “indigenous” processed meat in the urban centers. Need for improvement design of the most promising “local” preservation technologies based on their market competitiveness. Technologies need be standardized for quality equivalence.

Pastoral condition: high temperature ~30-40°C, low humidity Study area

Focus group discussion and observations used to collect data Each FGD had between 8 to 12 participants of either gender Each group provided with 3 kilograms of hind limb mutton steak purchased from local slaughterhouse and were required to preserve it based on indigenous methods. Final products evaluated for potential competitiveness using 5-pont hedonic scale where 5 = good‚ 4 = slightly good‚ 3 = neither good nor bad‚ 2 = slightly bad while 1 = bad. Comparisons of products made using corned beef and beef biltong Study design and methodology cont…

Results and discussion

Results and discussion cont…

Key: - reps Never, -/+ reps At times or rarely, + reps Always

Results and discussion cont…

Competitiveness of pastoral meat products  High scores for appearance‚ flavor‚ availability and cost of raw materials and shelf-life of final products.  Low scores for convenience‚ texture and market performance  Higher scores for flavor attributed to use of spices and use of ghee in nyirinyiri and smoke in enyas- spices and smoke has inhibitory effect to microbial spoilage and chemical oxidation of products  Smoke also used to sanitize packaging containers  Products are cooled to solidify the deep-frying fat/ oil over meat thereby creating anaerobic conditions- this prolonged shelf-life. Challenge: products become inconvenient to use and predispose products to oxidation

Results and discussion cont… vs How do we improve convenience?

Conclusion and recommendation Competitiveness would be increased if preservation processes are standardized and upgraded. Increased competitiveness would introduce the products into formal markets in urban areas On basis of technology used; deep-frying‚ drip- drying‚ cooling products over deep frying oil and use of spices/ smoke have the greatest potential. Further studies should be focused on upgrading these processes for incorporation into the formal meat value chan.

would wish to Acknowledge German Ministry of Education and Research through RELOAD project The entire RELOAD team in E. Africa and Germany ILRI

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