Mobile sensory lab allows consumers to share taste preferences and affect livestock breeding

CONSUMERS around the UK could soon be playing an important role in livestock breeding by tasting different meats and food products, and letting researchers tie up positive eating experiences with the underlying genetics of the livestock that produced them.

Members of the public will be invited to share their taste preferences with a mobile sensory lab – thought to be the first mobile unit of its kind – unveiled this week by Scotland’s Rural College.

The lab is equipped with state-of-the-art imaging technologies and meat quality equipment, and members of the public paying a visit will be offered samples to taste so that they can indicate their preferences via electronic touch screens.

SRUC’S scientists will use the information collected as part of their genetic improvement research which, in turn, will influence breeding programmes for sheep, cattle and pigs.

Supported and funded by the Centre of Innovation Excellence in Livestock, and Innovate UK, the SRUC sensory lab is housed in an articulated lorry and will soon be spotted outside supermarkets, at regional shows and in other places around the UK as part of a three-year programme.

The mobile lab is the brainchild of Professor Mike Coffey, team leader for animal and veterinary sciences at SRUC, and was showcased for the first time this week at the Agricultural Engineering Precision Innovation Centre hub at Harper Adams University in Shropshire.

Hosted by the Knowledge Transfer Network on behalf of Innovate UK, the event was as opportunity for the UK’S four Agri-tech Centres – AGRI-EPI, CIEL, Agrimetrics and the Centre for Crop Health and Protection – to highlight their capabilities through the “show and tell” tours.

Prof Coffey said: “Learning the taste preferences of the public – people of different ages, from different places and from different backgrounds – gives us valuable insight and will help us to improve the genetics of our farm animals, thereby ensuring the consumer gets the products they want.”

CIEL’S chief executive Lyndsay Chapman said: “We believe innovations like this are vital for the UK agri-food sector to compete – in this case, making sure we are producing what the consumer wants.

“Breeding for specific traits like taste and tenderness of meat can takes years,” said Ms Chapman. “Facilities like this will help determine breeding decisions and further improve the great products we produce in the UK.”

For in-depth news and views on Scottish agriculture, see this Friday’s issue of The Scottish Farmer or visit www. thescottishfarmer.co.uk