There’s science behind the packages of raw chicken and beef that are stocked daily in your local supermarket.

Meat science.

The University of Arkansas is a world leader in published research on the subject, according to an analysis conducted by U of A librarians and published in the journal Science & Technology Libraries.

The U of A is tied for first place in the world for published articles in poultry meat science and tied for third in beef meat science, according to the review for science librarians titled “Meat Science Around the World, 1980-2014.”

Overall, the university is tied for ninth place in the world in total meat science article output, according to co-authors Tony Stankus, Josef Laincz and Rachel Linck. Stankus is life sciences librarian for U of A Libraries as well as a Distinguished Professor. Laincz is geosciences and maps librarian and Linck is a graduate assistant.

Tony Stankus

Tony Stankus

A total of 86 current and past U of A faculty members and graduate students published in the area of meat science in the 25-year period the librarians used for their analysis, Stankus said. The most prolific authors, as judged strictly by papers in Meat Science, the leading journal in the field, were Fred Pohlman (24 articles) and Jason Apple (17), both professors in the Department of Animal Science in the University of Arkansas System’s statewide Division of Agriculture and Dale Bumpers College of Agriculture, Food and Life Sciences.

“However, there are many more papers in meat science distributed throughout other journals of the animal, food and poultry sciences,” Stankus said. “It should not be too surprising that virtually all other members of the Department of Animal Science, as well as most members of the Department of Poultry Science and several Department of Food Science faculty have made notable contributions to meat science.”

The trio of Stankus, Laincz and Linck analyzed 8,339 articles published in the journals of meat science and the related fields from which meat science arose, such as the animal, poultry, food, and veterinary sciences.

Among their findings:

  • The United States and its universities dominate worldwide beef and poultry meat science.
  • Meat science continues to discuss even long-familiar, primary cuts of meat, since their quality and consumer acceptance can be significantly impacted by the fluctuating circumstances under which the livestock that provided them are raised.
  • Meat scientists also develop new or improved further processed meat products because of market share competition and changing tastes among consumers.
  • The ham, typically the large, whole, bone-in cured “holiday meals” ham, is consistently the top-researched cut of meat.