Yoshihisa Godo,
Professor, Meiji Gakuin University, Japan
There are nearly 60,000 breeders of beef cattle in Japan1. They play an essential role in the meat industry and create important job opportunities in rural areas. Most cattle breeders are small-sized family...
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Dr. Jeongbin Im
Professor
Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development
College of Agricultural and Life Science
Seoul National University
Seoul, Korea
E-mail: jeongbin@snu.ac.kr
The cattle price in Korea has been decreasing since 2010. As of early July...
2014.07.30
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Yoshihisa Godo
Professor, Meiji Gakuin University, Japan
INTRODUCTION
Although Japan is the third largest beef importing country in the world (US Department of Agriculture, Livestock and Poultry: World Markets and Traders), with imports accounting for nearly 60% of domestic beef...
A university-launched venture in Japan has been striving to spread its meat quality evaluation technology using artificial intelligence, aiming to make the wagyu beef grading done by human eyes more precise, while using the data to improve cattle breeding.
MIJ labo Inc. in the northernmost main island of Hokkaido has developed cameras that use an AI system to calculate more than 10 factors such as the density and color of marbling by taking a picture of the surface of a carcass.
Since its founding in 2018, MIJ labo's cameras have been used in about 10 meat markets and research institutions in Japan and overseas including in the United States and Australia.
Currently, wagyu grading is done by Japan Meat Grading Association officials, who examine the surface of a carcass and check criteria such as the proportion that is edible, the density of the marbling as well as the firmness and texture of the meat.
This means the grading from C1 to the highest A5 is largely dependent on the judgement of the officials.
Read more here.