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Meat Science 92 (2012) 188196

Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect

Meat Science
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/meatsci

Review

China's meat industry revolution: Challenges and opportunities for the future
Guanghong Zhou , Wangang Zhang, Xinglian Xu
Lab of Meat Processing and Quality Control, EDU, College of Food Science and Technology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, 210095, PR China

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Keywords:
Meat industry
Meat production
Safety
Regulation

a b s t r a c t
From a very limited ration of meat only for urban citizens to the world's largest meat-producing country,
from a handful of processing facilities in major cities to thousands of modern meat packing and processing
plants throughout the country, the Chinese meat industry has gone through drastic revolutionary changes
particularly in the last three decades. Before the national economic reform in the late 1970s, meat production
in China was extremely limited; hence, meat was rationed, treated as a highly precious food, and was highly
valued. However, new processing technology developments, as related to meat animal production,
slaughtering, processing, and distribution have transformed the inefcient Chinese meat industry that prepared only a handful of traditional products into a vast enterprise today that is manufacturing a huge variety
of fresh and further processed items enjoyed by the average Chinese household. Along with this evolution,
there has been the emergence of mega-scale meat companies and rapid advances in meat science and technology that address many aspects of meat. This review will highlight some milestone changes of the Chinese
meat industry and discuss challenges and opportunities ahead in the global market for China.
2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Contents
1.
2.

3.

4.

5.

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Meat production and consumption. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.1.
Production of raw meat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.2.
Fresh meat consumption and the market . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.3.
Meat export and import . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Meat industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.1.
Brief introduction to the meat industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.2.
Processing technology and equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.3.
Leading enterprises in China meat industry: Yurun Food Group and Shuanghui Group
3.3.1.
Yurun Food Group (http://www.yurun.com.hk/en/index.html) . . . . . . .
3.3.2.
Shuanghui Group (http://www.shuanghui.net/) . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Meat research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.1.
National Meat Research Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.1.1.
National Center of Meat Quality and Safety Control . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.1.2.
MOSTUSDA Joint Research Center for Food Safety and Quality . . . . . . .
4.1.3.
China Meat Research Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.2.
Major events in meat research in China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.1.
Size and prot of meat enterprises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.2.
Quality and degree of meat product processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.3.
Engineering technology and integration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.4.
Investment for science and technology and achievement application . . . . . . . .
5.5.
Regulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.6.
Information communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.7.
Safety . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Corresponding author. Tel./fax: + 86 25 84396937.

E-mail address: ghzhou@njau.edu.cn (G. Zhou).
0309-1740/$ see front matter 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
doi:10.1016/j.meatsci.2012.04.016

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G. Zhou et al. / Meat Science 92 (2012) 188196

189

6.
Future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Acknowledgment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1. Introduction
In China, the consumption of food is important, not only because it
is essential for life, but also for psychological satisfaction involving the
actual food (be it vegetables, cereals or meat), the way it is cooked
and the social environment in which it is consumed. Traditional Chinese food and cooking methods are considered to be a ne art as with
painting and music and is usually referred to as Chinese food culture
(Li, Yin, & Saito, 2004; Nam, Jo, & Lee, 2010). In China, meat consumption and production, particularly for traditional meat products, has
developed over more than 3000 years. bYi Jing>, a popular Chinese
book written around 2800 years ago during the Zhou Dynasty (B.C.
1046B.C. 256), described various processing methods including
sun-drying and salt-curing of meat products. In volumes 7, 8 and 9
of an agricultural book bQi Min Yao Shu> of the Bei Wei dynasty
(386557), the source of meat food, meat processing and storage
was discussed in detail (Li, 2005). Technology for meat processing
was largely integrated and developed between North and South of
China during the Song (9601279), the Liao (9161125), the Jin
(11151234) and the Yuan (12061368) dynasties because of the
need for communication between the different races. During the
Ming (13681644) and the Qing dynasties (16161911), meat processing and cooking technologies were greatly enhanced resulting
in the formation of local traditional meat products right across China.
During the period of 1917 to 1949, western equipment and processing technologies were introduced to a number of large cities in
China including Shanghai, Tianjin, Qingdao and Haerbin. The introduction and utilization of this equipment for grinding, smoking and
sausage stufng led to the appearance of small to medium size
slaughtering houses and meat processing plants. This was the beginning of the meat processing industry in China, while at the same time,
most meat products were still being produced by family and small
workshops. Following this period research began on meat hygiene
and experts were trained in the area of meat processing and quarantine inspection. However, the meat available in markets was very limited during this period due to the poor economy and the low amount
of output. This was particularly the case in rural areas, where people
could only consume meat and meat products during special festivals.
Economic reform in the latter part of the 1980s largely changed the
meat industry in China leading to the accelerated growth of fresh
meat and the rapid development of meat processing. In 1990, the
total meat output of China was 30.42 million tons (Mt.) which was
the largest in the world while the meat consumption per capita
(37.5 kg) reached the average level of the world in 1994.
2. Meat production and consumption
2.1. Production of raw meat
The total production of raw meat has been consistently rising in
China at an annual average rate of 5.8% during the past 30 years.
In 2009, China was the world's largest producer of meat with
78.21 Mt. which was 28% of the world's total production. Of this
raw meat in China, the production of pork, poultry, beef and mutton
was 49.88 Mt., 16.44 Mt., 6.43 Mt. and 3.87 Mt. respectively. The output of pork and mutton far exceeded the production of poultry and
beef (Table 1).
As the production of raw meat has increased, the proportion of the
different meat species has changed (Table 2). One of the signicant

195
195
195

changes was the drop of pork output from 79.08% of total meat in
1978 to just 63.93% in 2009. However, pork still has a dominant position in the total meat structure but its share of total meat production
is still declining. The ratio of beef, mutton and chicken increased from
2.52%, 2.89% and 13.80% in 1978 to 8.31%, 5.08% and 22.68% in 2009,
respectively. It is noteworthy that the meat consumption pattern
was different in urban and rural areas in China as a result of differences in income level, education, meat availability and tradition. In
urban households, 57% of meat consumption was pork and 13% was
beef and mutton while pork accounted for 71% and beef and mutton
for 9% in rural households (Gong et al., 2011). In 2009, the annual
per capita consumption of meat in China was 57.3 kg including
36.7 kg of pork, 12.0 kg of poultry, 4.8 kg of beef and 3.0 kg of mutton.
Currently, the developmental philosophy of fresh meat in China is
stable development of the swine industry, active development of
the poultry industry and fast development of the cattle and sheep industry. The main purpose of this policy is to improve the balance of
consumption and the demand structure of meat consumption in
China.

2.2. Fresh meat consumption and the market

The trend in the pattern of fresh meat consumption in China has
changed from hot-fresh meat to frozen meat and subsequently from
frozen meat to chilled fresh meat. Currently, the largest markets for
chilled fresh meat are in the large sized cities. In Beijing and Shanghai,
chilled fresh meat has a share of 30% while it only accounts for 10% in
the mid-sized cities of China. In rural areas and in remote cities, hotfresh meat is still the predominant type sold, usually through farmer's
markets (Liu & Sun, 2010). In these situations, the carcasses may remain in open air for several hours before they are sold. The meat
pieces are usually directly cut from the whole carcass as determined
by the consumer's requirements based on muscle, fat content and
weight (Gong et al., 2011).
Along with the establishment and the improvement of lowtemperature supply chains, the sale marketing of fresh meat from
middle and large size enterprises has been changing. In big cities,
the market share of supermarkets, special meat stores and franchised
meat stores is larger than for the traditional farmer's market. However, the farmer's market is still the predominant seller of fresh meat in
most parts of China. In European countries, the sale of meat in supermarkets and special stores accounts for 65%, meat chain stores for 25%
while 10% is sold to hotels and restaurants. It is expected that the
share of meat sold by supermarkets, special stores and chain stores
will increase in parallel with the change of consumer's knowledge
and the fast pace of urbanization in China (Wang, Wang, Zhou, &
Xing, 2011).

Table 1
Meat production in China and the world in 2009.
China Statistical Yearbook 2010.
Production

China (Mt.)

World (Mt.)

Proportion (%)

Ranking in the world

Pork
Mutton
Poultry
Beef

4987.9
386.7
1643.8
642.5

10,606.9
1304.8
9130.8
6514.6

47.0
29.6
18.0
9.9

1
1
2
3

190

G. Zhou et al. / Meat Science 92 (2012) 188196

Table 2
The production (Mt.) and proportion (%) of different fresh meat in China.
FAOSTAT; China Statistical Yearbook 2010.
Pork
1978
1979
1980
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009

8.77
10.87
12.13
12.67
13.53
14.01
15.37
17.57
19.03
19.49
21.29
22.35
24.02
25.82
27.65
29.84
32.61
33.40
31.58
35.96
38.84
40.06
39.66
40.52
41.23
42.39
43.41
45.55
46.51
42.88
46.21
49.88

Beef
(79.08)
(81.42)
(82.01)
(82.06)
(82.30)
(82.03)
(82.72)
(83.91)
(83.14)
(81.01)
(79.71)
(79.45)
(78.96)
(77.37)
(75.94)
(73.59)
(72.90)
(69.22)
(68.89)
(68.26)
(67.85)
(67.34)
(65.95)
(66.36)
(66.14)
(65.79)
(65.68)
(65.64)
(65.61)
(62.45)
(63.48)
(63.93)

0.28
0.32
0.34
0.35
0.36
0.4
0.45
0.51
0.63
0.84
1.00
1.12
1.30
1.58
1.85
2.37
2.81
3.60
3.56
4.41
4.80
5.05
5.13
5.09
5.22
5.43
5.60
5.68
5.77
6.13
6.13
6.43

(2.52)
(2.40)
(2.30)
(2.27)
(2.19)
(2.34)
(2.42)
(2.44)
(2.75)
(3.49)
(3.74)
(3.98)
(4.27)
(4.73)
(5.08)
(5.84)
(6.28)
(7.46)
(7.77)
(8.37)
(8.39)
(8.49)
(8.53)
(8.34)
(8.37)
(8.43)
(8.47)
(8.19)
(8.14)
(8.83)
(8.42)
(8.31)

Mutton

Poultry meat

Chicken

Duck

Goose

Total

0.32
0.38
0.45
0.48
0.53
0.55
0.59
0.59
0.62
0.72
0.80
0.96
1.07
1.18
1.25
1.37
1.48
1.75
1.81
2.13
2.35
2.51
2.64
2.72
2.84
3.09
3.33
3.50
3.64
3.83
3.80
3.87

1.53 (13.80)
1.59 (11.91)
1.66 (11.22)
1.73 (11.20)
1.81 (11.01)
1.9 (11.12)
1.94 (10.44)
2.02 (9.65)
2.32 (10.14)
2.69 (11.18)
3.25 (12.17)
3.37 (11.98)
3.74 (12.29)
4.48 (13.43)
5.12 (14.06)
6.41 (15.81)
7.17 (16.03)
8.67 (17.97)
8.79 (19.18)
10.22 (19.40)
11.22 (19.60)
11.70 (19.67)
12.41 (20.64)
12.43 (20.35)
12.75 (20.45)
13.22 (20.52)
13.12 (19.85)
14.36 (20.69)
14.67 (20.69)
15.52 (20.83)
15.76 (22.88)
16.44 (22.68)

1.08
1.11
1.17
1.22
1.28
1.36
1.39
1.45
1.66
1.93
2.35
2.42
2.66
3.17
3.59
4.57
5.15
6.06
6.14
7.24
7.95
8.17
8.85
8.86
9.05
9.26
9.30
10.30
10.42
10.86
11.02
11.44

0.27
0.29
0.30
0.31
0.32
0.33
0.33
0.34
0.41
0.47
0.51
0.53
0.60
0.67
0.79
0.98
1.08
1.28
1.29
1.46
1.60
1.81
1.80
1.80
1.85
1.95
1.96
2.11
2.18
2.35
2.51
2.66

0.17
0.18
0.19
0.19
0.20
0.21
0.21
0.21
0.25
0.29
0.40
0.41
0.47
0.64
0.74
0.85
0.93
1.33
1.37
1.51
1.66
1.72
1.75
1.75
1.80
1.85
1.80
1.91
1.98
2.23
2.23
2.33

11.09
13.35
14.79
15.44
16.44
17.08
18.58
20.94
22.89
24.06
26.71
28.13
30.42
33.37
36.41
40.55
44.73
48.25
45.84
52.69
57.24
59.49
60.14
61.06
62.34
64.43
66.09
69.39
70.89
68.66
72.79
76.50

(2.89)
(2.85)
(3.04)
(3.11)
(3.22)
(3.22)
(3.18)
(2.82)
(2.71)
(2.99)
(3.00)
(3.41)
(3.52)
(3.54)
(3.43)
(3.38)
(3.31)
(3.63)
(3.82)
(4.04)
(4.11)
(4.22)
(4.39)
(4.45)
(4.56)
(4.80)
(5.04)
(5.04)
(5.13)
(7.69)
(5.22)
(5.08)

2.3. Meat export and import

During the period of 20042007, the export of meat was steady
being in the range of 800900 thousand tons per annum which
accounted for 4.05.0% of the world's total meat export. For example,
1.2% of pork produced (535 thousand tons) in China was exported
accounting for 8.9% of world pork export in 2007 including countries
such as Kyrghizstan, Vietnam and Singapore. In the same year,
358 thousand tons of poultry meat was exported accounting for
3.3% of poultry production in China. However, the import and export
of fresh meat, particularly pork, has not been stable since the second
half of 2007 due to the price uctuation of fresh meat in China. In
2008, China imported 373 thousand tons of pork, an increase of 3.4%
compared to the previous year. In June of 2008, the imported pork
reached 60 thousand tons which broke the monthly record of pork
import in China (Wu & Sun, 2011). In 2009, there was again an adequate domestic supply and China only imported 139 thousand tons
of pork, a decrease of 63.8% compared to the previous year. At the
same time, the pork price decreased by two fold in 2009 compared
to that in 2008, leading to reduced pig rearing in 2009. In 2010, the
pig supply was again short in the market resulting in increased import of 200 thousand tons which was 49% higher than 2009 (Wu &
Sun, 2011). These facts indicate that import and the export of fresh
meat in China were inconsistent, largely depending on the available
amount of animals in China and the price of fresh meat.
3. Meat industry
3.1. Brief introduction to the meat industry
Since the 1990s, China's meat industry has experienced a key period for development and transition. During these ten years, China
imported more than 700 production lines for slaughtering and

processing of meat. Most of the state-owned plants for meat products

were made integrated or disappeared with the fast growing private
meat processing enterprises in China. From 2000 to 2007, the number
of enterprises involved in slaughtering and processing deceased from
35,000 to 23,000 but at the same time, those remaining companies
became much larger-scale enterprises. The capacity for slaughtering
and meat processing by the large enterprises developed rapidly during this period. For example, the number of pigs slaughtered in Shuanghui Group during the period 2000 to 2006 increased 340% while
the Yurun Food Group increased their pig slaughter capacity by
670% (Table 3). In 2007, the top three meat enterprises (Shuanghui
Group, Yurun Food Group and Jinluo Company) in China slaughtered
more than 50 million head of pigs accounting for 8% of total pigs
slaughtered. The top 50 meat enterprises in China presently account
for 1.61% of total above-scale enterprises (annual sales more than
RMB 500 million) while their total assets have a share of 72.5% and
their prot has a share of 84.6% of all meat enterprises in China. The
meat processing enterprises are mainly located in the provinces that

Table 3
Meat production in Shuanghui Group since 2000.
Survey from Shuanghui Group.
Year

Slaughtering
(head)

Carcass
(ton)

Chilled fresh
meat (ton)

Frozen fresh
meat (ton)

2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008

2,643,308
2,711,104
3,638,257
5,447,966
6,802,995
9,133,834
11,102,033
10,002,008
8,574,788

1903
8133
15,281
24,516
40,818
82,205
1,332,244
720,145
1,028,975

7434
11,215
23,190
24,752
36,259
57,589
84,700
93,473
106,443

49,089
43,126
50,767
82,079
92,819
106,889
127,550
94,001
73,765

G. Zhou et al. / Meat Science 92 (2012) 188196

191

have high production of livestock and poultry. The assets, sale and
prot of the meat industry in Shandong, Henan, Sichuan, Jiangsu,
Liaoning and Inner Mongolia provinces have developed quickly
which has driven the rapid improvement of the meat industry in
China (Han, 2011). Given the enhanced concern for food safety and
the move to modern meat processing operations, the meat product
industry is expected to experience further integration (Wang & Xia,
1999).
The size of meat processing enterprises has been increasing which
leads to increased levels of intensication and modernization. In
2009, the total number of above-scale enterprises in slaughtering
and meat processing was 3696 which included 2076 in slaughtering,
1620 in meat processing and 91 in canned meat factories. The total
assets of these enterprises is RMB 225.6 billion with a turn-over of
RMB 516.7 billion and a net prot of RMB 20.6 billion. The number
of employees involved in slaughtering and meat processing reached
1.05 million, while 70 million farmers were involved in animal production and husbandry. The meat industry continues to play a key
role in increasing income of farmers and improving the economy of
rural areas in China.
In recent years, the further processing rate for raw meat has been
gradually increased in China (Fig. 1). In 2002, only 7.2% of raw meat
was further processed into meat products while it doubled to 14.7%
by 2009. Currently, China has more than 500 types of meat products
including both Chinese style (45%) and western style (55%). Among
the western style meat products, 40% are high temperature-treated
products while the low temperature products account for 60% of the
market. Ready-to-eat meat products currently have a low market
share although their numbers are developing rapidly, particularly
with high quality fermented meat products (Meng et al., 2011).

the amount of fresh meat in the market. In the 1990s, the large-scale enterprises imported modern production lines and established advanced
processing procedures for slaughtering, cutting, packaging and the
sale chain. Currently, above-scale enterprises have started to accept
and apply modern technologies such as stunning, vacuum blood collection, scalding technology, hurdle technology, rapid cooling, grading systems, chilled logistics, HACCP and traceability systems.
The research and development of meat-related equipment and facilities in China has been slow. Generally, large meat enterprises import
whole production lines, while small and middle size enterprises tend
to use locally-made equipment (Wang, 2010). In the past decade,
China has imported over 10,000 key pieces of equipment for further
processing of meat including grinding, automatic sausage stufng, continuous packaging, salt injection, smoking oven and machine capping.
More than 200 sets of slaughtering lines and equipment were imported
mainly from Germany, Denmark, Netherlands, Spain and France. In
2008, Chinese enterprises paid 64.3 million dollars to purchase equipment from foreign countries. In addition to that imported, Chinese
companies have now started designing and developing their own
equipment for meat processing through research and cooperation
with foreign companies. Currently, key equipment in large-scale
slaughtering enterprises has to be imported as the whole line in some
cases, while general equipment is supplied from Chinese companies.
In middle-sized enterprises, 95% of general equipment is from China
while some key equipment is still being purchased from foreign companies. The equipment made in China for meat slaughtering and processing accounts for 60% of total equipment in the current market.

3.2. Processing technology and equipment

3.3.1. Yurun Food Group (http://www.yurun.com.hk/en/index.html)

Yurun Food Group is located at Nanjing, Jiangsu Province of China. It
was established in 1993 with assets of only RMB 3 million, focusing on
low temperature meat products. Currently, the Yurun Food Group is
the largest food enterprise in China. In 2011, the meat food sector of
Yurun Group had more than 60 thousand employees and sales of
RMB 60 billion. The number of pigs slaughtered was more than 40 million which ranked highest in the world. The company offers a wide
range of pork products, including chilled pork, frozen pork, low temperature meat products and high temperature meat products. The products
are marketed under a family of brands, including Yurun, Wangrun and
Popular Meat Packing. The main products of Yurun include chilled
pork, frozen pork and low temperature meat products (LTMP). In the
period from 2004 to 2007, Yurun was the largest retailer of LTMP in
China. Moreover, in Eastern China, Yurun has obtained more than 60%
of market share of meat supply to the star hotels. With strong operational capabilities and well-established vertically-integrated practices,
Yurun has become one of the most signicant suppliers of chilled and
frozen pork in the mainland market. Looking into the future, Yurun
will continue to take advantage of the growth opportunity provided
by the changing consumption pattern of large and medium-sized cities
in China. They further strengthen the Yurun brands by promoting as
Healthy, Quality, Delicious and High-end in the market to achieve
rapid sales growth of focused product lines, low temperature meat
products and chilled pork. At the same time, Yurun is committed to industry upgrade, technological innovations and customer service for
building a solid foundation to meet the rapidly growing demand. In addition, apart from their continuous effort to enhance its value-added capability and sales, they intend to vigorously pursue the mid to high end
markets and continue to develop new products and customers markets,
and to extend the scope and depth of market coverage.

The slaughtering and processing technology for livestock and poultry has experienced signicant changes in China. The traditional
model was one knife to kill pig, one cauldron to remove hair and one
balance to sell meat which was developed to large-scale rearing,
mechanization slaughter, ne cut, chilled-chain delivery and chained
sell. In the 1950s, China was under the model of planned economy
when the amount of slaughtering and sale of pigs were controlled by
government. The decit of prot, although partly offset by a subsidy
from the government, led to shortages of meat in the market and a stagnant technology in slaughtering plants (Liu & Sun, 2010). In 1962, the
production of pork, beef and mutton was only 1940 thousand tons
with annual per capita consumption of 2.9 kg. After the reform and
open policy, especially from the middle of 1980s, the meat enterprises
were independent of government and there was an increase in the establishment of private enterprises. The increasing demand for meat
and meat products drove the improved technologies and increased

Deep processing rate (%)

18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

Year
Fig. 1. Deep processing rate of raw meat during 20022009 in China.

3.3. Leading enterprises in China meat industry: Yurun Food Group and
Shuanghui Group

3.3.2. Shuanghui Group (http://www.shuanghui.net/)

Shuanghui group is located in the city of Luohe, Henan Province of
China. Shuanghui Group has total assets of over RMB 10 billion. The

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G. Zhou et al. / Meat Science 92 (2012) 188196

Shuanghui Group has established several divisions including Fresh and

Frozen Meat Division, Cooked Meat Products Division, Chemical Packaging Division and Pig Breeding Division. It has a capacity to slaughter
15 million head of pigs and process over 2.5 million tons of cooked
meat products annually. By introducing western-styled meat products
and improving traditional Chinese-styled meat products, the company
produces a large variety of products. Currently the company produces
in excess of 200 types of chilled meat products, 200 prepared meat
products, 600 ready-to-eat meat food products and both of sterilized
and pasteurized meat products in western and Chinese style. The Shuanghui Group has modern factories in 12 provinces and over 200 sales
branches and modern commodity distribution centers in 31 provinces
throughout the country. The company now has sales branches in
Japan, Singapore, Philippines, South Korea and other countries and has
revenue of more than RMB 600 million per year from foreign trade. By
the end of 2015, the company is planning to produce 8 million tons of
cooked meat products, with sales of over RMB 100 billion.
4. Meat research
Since the start of economic reform, especially from the tenth veyear plan (20012005), the national government has put much attention
to support research in the area of meat science. Several state platforms
for meat science and technology were established including China
Meat Research Center, National Center of Meat Quality and Safety Control, and Key Lab of Meat Quality and Safety Control. At the same time,
key laboratory and engineering and technology research centers were
built at the level of Ministry or Province, such as Key Lab for Meat Processing and Quality Control under the Ministry of Education. In addition,
other comprehensive science platforms have also been involved in meat
research including State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Technology,
the Key Laboratory for Agricultural and Animal Product Processing and
Quality Control of the Ministry of Agriculture and National Center of Agricultural Product Processing Technology and Development.
4.1. National Meat Research Center
4.1.1. National Center of Meat Quality and Safety Control
The Center was established in 2009 under the approval of the Ministry of Science and Technology at Nanjing Agricultural University
(Nanjing, Jiangsu, P. R. of China). The main research areas include:
processing, safety and quality control of chilled fresh meat; modernization of Chinese traditional meat products; processing and safety
and quality control of low-temperature meat products; meat grading;
mechanism of meat aging, avor formation and food gelation.
4.1.2. MOSTUSDA Joint Research Center for Food Safety and Quality
This research center was designed by Ministry of Science and
Technology of China and United States Department of Agriculture in
2008. The center was established in Nanjing Agricultural University
in China (Nanjing, Jiangsu, P. R. China) and in United States Meat
Animal Research Center (Clay Center, Nebraska, USA). The center in
Nanjing Agricultural University was ofcially approved by the Ministry of Science and Technology in February of 2011. The main research
area for joint research center are: technology for food quality control;
identication and control of food-borne pathogen; application of food
microbiology prediction model in food production; mechanism of
food quality formation; research in technical service and transformation of scientic and technological achievement.
4.1.3. China Meat Research Center
This center was established in 1986 in Beijing under the approval
of the Ministry of Science and Technology. In 2000, it was also recognized as China Meat Processing and Engineering Technology Research
Center. The main working areas for this center include: basic research
about meat science, meat processing, engineering development and

new product research and development; research on equipment

and facilities for meat processing; working on meat quality supervision and inspection and establishing standards for meat quality;
training for technical employee and manager in meat industry; research, development and production of additives for meat products;
service for quality certication and consulting.
4.2. Major events in meat research in China
1986: The China Meat Research Center (CMRC) was established in
Beijing. CMRC then became China Meat Processing and Engineering Center in 2000.
1987: Chinese Journal of Meat research published its rst issue.
1996: The Ministry of S&T and Ministry of Agriculture supported
the rst national ve-year plan research program for meat science,
soon after, several national meat program launched such as traditional meat products, low temperature meat products, chilled
fresh meat and fermented meat etc.
1997: First national congress of meat science and technology was
held in Nanjing.
2006: Key Lab for Meat Processing and Quality Control was
established at Nanjing Agricultural University and the Yurun
Food Group.
2007: 53rd International Congress of Meat Science and Technology was held in Beijing.
2008: MOSTUSDA Joint Research Center for Food Safety and
Quality was established at Nanjing Agricultural University in
China and Meat Animal Research Center in United States.
2009: National Center of Meat Quality and Safety Control was
established at Nanjing Agricultural University and the Yurun
Food Group.
2010: National Natural Science Foundation of China dened Food
Science as an independent eld, meat processing is a major
supporting areas.
2011: First national key laboratory of meat processing for enterprises was established in Yurun Food Group.
5. Challenges
5.1. Size and prot of meat enterprises
In 2008, the slaughtering and processing enterprises with abovescale sale RMB 5 million accounted for 12% of total enterprises. Only
0.4% of slaughtering enterprises reached the advanced level while
75% of slaughtering enterprises still slaughter livestock and poultry
with semi-mechanized equipment. The output share of meat products from larger leading enterprises was less than 20% of total production in 2008. In that year, the number of pigs slaughtered by the three
largest enterprises, Shuanghui Group, Yurun Food Group and Jinluo
Company accounted for 8% of total pigs slaughtered in China. This
market share was much lower compared to 57% of market share of
the top three slaughtering companies from USA, namely Smitheld,
Tyson and JBS/USA. Therefore, meat enterprises involving slaughtering
and processing is at a relatively low level compared with western countries (Pan, 2010).
In China, the meat industry is a relatively low-prot business. Sale
prot of slaughtering and meat processing enterprises was just 3.53%
and 4.55% respectively for meat processing in China. Canned meat enterprises showed a similar level of prot, 4.44%. In 2009, 412 enterprises in slaughtering and meat processing had operating losses and
these companies accounted for 11.2% of total above-scale enterprises.
The total losses of these enterprises was RMB 1.28 billion in 2009 which
was RMB 70 million more than the losses in 2008. Among slaughtering

G. Zhou et al. / Meat Science 92 (2012) 188196

enterprises, 225 companies were in decit, accounting for 10.84% of

total slaughtering enterprises. The total loss of these slaughtering enterprises was RMB 826 million which was RMB 97 million more than that
in 2008.
As for meat and by-product processing enterprises, 11.55% of
those showed a loss of RMB 456 million, which was RMB 46 million
less than the previous year. Out of 91 canned meat enterprises, 11 enterprises showed a loss in 2009 accounting for 12.1% of total canned
meat enterprises. The loss was RMB 10 million in 2009 compared
with RMB 7 million losses in 2008. These data indicate that meat enterprises are not only a low prot industry in China, but also have
faced a decit situation in the past several years. In addition, the distribution of prot in the chain of meat and meat production is not balanced. Generally, the net prot is 10% in pig breeding, 8% in animal
rearing, 1% in slaughtering, 7% in meat processing and 2% in sale of
meat and meat products. Most meat enterprises in China are unable
to be involved in the whole chain of the industry from breeding
through to processing and are therefore not in a controlling position
to alter costs and prots to deal with price uctuations.
5.2. Quality and degree of meat product processing
Currently, the proportion of the consumption of fresh meat is
much higher than that of processed meat products in China, particularly for the value-added and enhanced products, which have a low
market share. According to a 2009 report (Fig. 1), more than 50% of
fresh meat was processed in most developed countries compared
with just 14.7% in China. Fresh meat, hot fresh meat and frozen
meat still have a high share compared to chilled fresh meat, and chilled fresh meat receives little further treatment such as cutting, packaging and seasoning. Among the further processed meat products,
low quality products have a high market share such as high temperature sausage while low temperature and ready-to-eat meat products
were in low percentage (Table 4). In addition, many additives including starch, phosphate, and nitrite are over used in some meat products. For example, high amounts of preservative ingredients are
added to extend the shelf-life of high-temperature meat products.
Phosphate concentrations, higher than the legal limits, have been utilized in meat products for improving product yield (Yao, 2010; Yao &
Sun, 2009). Therefore, low-temperature meat products are expected
to be better controlled through development of new processes in
the near future to avoid issues concerning quality and safety.
Traditional meat products in China have been developed for over
3000 years and are famous with their attractive color, special avors
and unique shapes (Zhou, Zhao, & Peng, 2003). Most of these products are produced in certain areas and as such have been named
Jinhua Ham, Guangdong Sausage and Nanjing Dried salted duck.
These traditional products were usually produced in small workshops
without ofcial standardized processing procedures. For example,
traditional Jinhua ham was processed under natural conditions for
68 months, including six stages of green ham preparation, salting,
washing, sun-drying and shaping, ripening and post-ripening (Zhou

Table 4
Type of meat products in the Shuanghui Group.
Survey of the Shuanghui Group.
Year

High temperature (ton)

Low temperature (ton)

2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008

81,120
135,786
188,936
250,083
332,767
425,527
495,541
591,504
684,654

12,407
24,068
34,643
59,831
80,333
96,384
114,925
130,338
155,036

193

& Zhao, 2007). This led to issues with these traditional meat products
such as difculties in safety control, low consistency in product quality and high amounts of salt content and nitrite or nitrate residues
(Zhou et al., 2003). In addition, the underlying mechanism for the
unique quality of traditional meat products has not been fully investigated. The processing technology was mainly based on working experience without detailed standards or guidance. These factors led to
limitations in quality control and industry application of traditional
meat products in China (Li, 2005). Ready-to-eat meat products have
been developed rapidly in recent years in China. However, the low
quality and the short shelf-life still limit their further growth in the
Chinese market. Particularly for frozen ready-to-eat products, freezing and thawing may result in high purge losses, unpleasant tastes
and unattractive colors (Liu, Zhang, & He, 2008).
5.3. Engineering technology and integration
Although national and local governments have actively supported
research and development in the meat industry since 9th year plan
(19962000), funding has not enabled the research achievements to
be extended and applied efciently into industry. In the processing
of fresh meat, most of slaughtering enterprises are lacking integration
technology for pre-slaughtering management, slaughtering, deboning
and cutting, packaging, delivery and inspection.
The important safety and quality problems in fresh meat processing include microbial cross-contamination, high percentage of drip
loss, color fading and browning, and limited shelf-life. In most pig
slaughtering plants of China, boiling water is used for scalding and
hair removal while in developed countries hot water sprays for scalding and steam for hair removal are used to avoid cross-contamination
of water and thus carcasses. Automated boning and segmentation,
has not been widely applied in Chinese slaughtering enterprises
where manual operation is the main method used. Chilled meat products rst appeared in the middle of 1980s when China imported
equipment and technology for low-temperature meat products.
Technology and integration for curing, tumbling, chopping and emulsication and gelation need to be further improved. Processing standardization and modernization of traditional meat products in China
still need to be further improved especially key technology and
equipment. Main technologies needing to be engineered and integrated in traditional meat products include fast aging in cured meat
products and industry production of starter cultures, and temperature and humidity control for fermented meat products. In China, research and technology regarding microbiology prediction has
recently started and the model for spoilage and food-borne microbiology prediction is partly established for meat (Liu, Wang, & Hou,
2009).
5.4. Investment for science and technology and achievement application
Although research and technology in the areas of meat science has
improved in past decades in China, we still face some problems including insufcient investment in science and technology and a low
rate of transformation of scientic research achievement. According
to the China Statistical Yearbook 2010, the total funds for research
and development were RMB 580 billion accounting for 1.70% of GDP
in 2009. This percentage was low compared to 3.47% in South
Korea, 3.44% in Japan, 2.68% in USA, 2.54% in Germany, 2.08% in
France, 1.89% in Canada and 1.78% in UK. Among the total investment,
government, enterprises and other sources accounted for 23.4%,
71.7% and 4.8% respectively. The percentage from government was
lower than France 39%, Australia 37%, Canada 32%, UK 31%, Germany
28% and USA 27%. In 2009, 82.7% of total research funds were distributed for experimental development, 12.6% for applied research while
only 4.7% was applied for basic research. The low investment in basic

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G. Zhou et al. / Meat Science 92 (2012) 188196

and applied research largely limits the ability of independent innovation, including in the area of meat science in China.
The funds for research and development from government
sources to colleges and research institutes is relatively low compared
to that provided by industry. The meat processing and livestock rearing industries require advanced technologies to drive research and
development, to transform research achievement and promote technology, and lead to the innovation of equipment and technology.
However, in various enterprises, most funds are used for purchasing
equipment while only a few enterprises use the funds to develop
new products, improve the production efciency and product quality
and thus increase prots. In addition, a large part of the meat industry
in China is not enthusiastic about accepting new knowledge and technologies as it would require the need for replacement of outdated
equipment and the need to undertake innovative ideas and processes
at the expense of the traditional approach.
5.5. Regulations
Along with the formation of the meat chain, more and more administration or ministry of government is involved in the regulation
of meat quality and safety. Eight departments or ministries, including
Ministry of Industry and Commerce, Ministry of Health, State Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, Ministry
of Agriculture, National Development and Reform Commission, State
Environmental Protection Administration, State Administration for
Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine work together to inspect and
manage the quality and safety in slaughtering, processing and further
processing of meat products. However, due to the unclear responsibilities across departments, the eight administrations are unable to
collaborate efciently.
In 2007, there were 448,000 enterprises involved in food production and processing among which 26,000 enterprises were abovescale. In these above-scale enterprises, only 10% had HACCP certication. Even with an established HACCP management system, some
enterprises were not able to maintain the system efciently and set
up alternate facilities for HACCP (Liu & Zhu, 2010; Ye & Jia, 2009).
Other certications or regulations for meat processing in China,
including regulation for animal protection and welfare, PACCP or
QACCP, a food traceability system and food carbon emission tag
marking regulations are generally not well managed in either government or private enterprises.
Although the prole and system for meat related standards have
been established, there are still many problems in the standard system (Xiong, Li, & Li, 2011). Most standards relate to the areas of production, detection and processing, while no detailed standards have
been established for meat sources and pre-slaughter management.
The standards between government and private enterprises are
often not consistent leading to difculties in the meat supervision
and inspection for government.
5.6. Information communication
The meat industry has been developing quickly in recent decades,
but the corresponding development in private enterprises, government, research institutes and consumers has not kept pace with the
improvements in the meat industry. The information communication
is asymmetric across meat industry, from production to consumption.
For example, false or irresponsible information from the meat enterprises may lead to the inaccurate statistical reporting to central and
local government. These reports further mislead those involved in animal rearing/production and meat enterprises resulting in price uctuations beyond their control. Although local governments have
established public platforms for meat marketing, they are unable to
take responsibility for the maintenance and updating of information.
Thus, the information from those public platforms is usually difcult

to follow with the fast economic development and the changes in

meat marketing. These factors result in price uctuation of meat in
China which thus affects the supply and the consumption of meat
and meat products (Guo, 2011). For example, the availability of pigs
for slaughter could be markedly reduced in the market as a result of
decreased prices in the previous year. The shortage of pork in the
market leads to an increased price and this induces farmers to rear
larger numbers of pigs in the following year. However, a saturated
supply of pork in the market could cause the pork prices to decrease
again. It is such cycles that affect overall protability and consistency
of supply of meat products (Wang, 2009a). According a report of National Bureau of Statistics of China, the annual per capita pork consumption in 2007 was 1.8 kg less than pork consumption in 2006
partly due to the high price. The average pork price in May of 2008
was RMB 20 per kg while it decreased to less than RMB 10 per kg in
May of 2009 (Wu & Sun, 2011). The asymmetry of information and
communication would be a key factor to limit the sustainable development of the meat industry in future in China.
5.7. Safety
China's reputation regarding food safety, particularly of fresh meat
and meat products is perceived to be less than optimal. Meat safety
issues have included antibiotic residues, contamination during transportation, microbiology contamination, illegal use of additives in feed
and medicine, addition of toxic ingredients and toxic residues from
the environment (Wang, 2009b; Yang, 2009; Zhang, Huang, & Xu,
2011). The government has been working diligently to increase the
safety and the security of meat and meat products. For example, the
State Council started a national safety inspection and correction process for pork safety as a priority in August of 2007. This was led by the
Ministry of Commerce along with the Ministry of Public Security, the
Ministry of Agriculture, the General Administration of Industry and
Commerce, and the General Administration of Quality Supervision,
Inspection and Quarantine. As a result of the four-month inspection,
1304 slaughter plants were closed and 7596 unregistered slaughtering
plants were shut down, due to safety concerns and the breach of regulations. Other government special actions, led by the Ministry of Commerce in 2006, were aimed at establishing a quality-assured pork
system to improve product quality and food safety special rectication
action. The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection
and Quarantine was initiated in 2007 to improve the company awareness of using food additives and ingredients, and quality and safety improvement action for agricultural food products by the Ministry of
Agriculture to improve food quality and safety and monitor additive
residues in 2007. However, neither of these special actions, led by the
central government, was able to achieve food security in China.
In recent years, there have been two serious food safety outbreaks: one involving milk contaminated by melamine, and the second, fresh pork contaminated by clenbuterol (Chen, 2009; Liang et
al., 2009; Zhang et al., 2009). The Ministry of Agriculture in 1997
banned the use of clenbuterol in animal feeds in China, but it is still
being used illegally in livestock feed today to accelerate lean muscle
growth (Liu, 2004; Meng, Liu, & Du, 2009). The presence of
clenbuterol in foods can cause serious side effects including heart palpitations, muscle tremors, nervousness, dizziness, nausea, vomiting,
fever, chills and even death (Jin & Jin, 2011). In May of 2006, more
than 100 employees of Shatian Yintong glass plant in Dongguan of
Guangdong province consumed pig lungs contaminated with clenbuterol
resulting in illnesses including vomiting, diarrhea and fever. In September
of 2006, 336 persons were hospitalized with dizziness, profuse sweating
and hand numbness due to consumption of pork and pig organs with
high content of clenbuterol (Hong, 2007). According to a report from
the Chinese government, food-related clenbuterol poisoning has been responsible for 18 incidents between 1998 and 2007 with more than 1700
persons becoming ill and one person dying.

G. Zhou et al. / Meat Science 92 (2012) 188196

In the past, the microbial safety of fresh meat was not of major
concern since the unique cooking methods and eating habits in
China would render a safe product for consumption. In Chinese cuisine, fresh meat and meat products are usually cooked thoroughly before being consumed which could kill any pathogens. However, with
changing life styles driving the increased demands for fast meat food
including ready-to-eat meat products, more research has been focusing on possible food safety problems. It was reported in China that
salmonella was responsible for approximately 70% to 80% of foodborne bacterial diseases (Wang, Zheng, & Wang, 2007). In a recent
study on raw poultry carcasses, it was found that 52.2% of the samples
from large, small and wet retail markets were identied with salmonella contamination (Yang et al., 2011). The prevalence across provinces and national cities were highest in Guangxi Province (65.3%)
followed by Guangdong Province (64.6%), Beijing (63.9%), Shanxi
Province (50.0%), Henan Province (47.9%), Shanghai (44.4%), Fujian
Province (42.4%) and Sichuan Province (38.9%). Other studies also
support that food-borne pathogens are positively detected in Chinese
markets (Chui, 2009; Jiang, Chen, Ye, Zeng, & Wang, 2009; Liu, Li,
Liang, & Zhen, 2007). Therefore, more attention should be paid to
food-borne pathogens, especially in fresh meat from open markets.
6. Future
During recent decades China has become one of the fastest growing economies in the world. In coming years, the economy in China is
expected to keep growing in the range of 510% per annum. Increasing incomes and expenditures along with the urbanization and population growth in China are expected to increase the demand for meat
and meat products in the near future (Meng et al., 2011; Zhang & Xu,
2008). The major developmental goals in China for the meat sector by
2015 are:
1. By 2015, the total meat production output will reach 86 Mt. with a
value of RMB 800 billion. The gross prot of meat enterprises is
targeted to increase from RMB 20.5 billion in 2009 to RMB 32 billion
in 2015. The per capita annual meat consumption is expected to
reach 61 kg.
2. Pork production will be maintained at a steady level while the
amount of beef, mutton and poultry will be expanded. The
expected output for pork, poultry, beef and mutton in 2015 are
52.46 Mt., 19.78 Mt., 7.74 Mt. and 4.3 Mt., respectively.
3. By 2015, the proportion of hot fresh meat, chilled fresh meat and
frozen meat will be 50%, 30% and 20% respectively in abovecounty-level markets. The amount of processed meat is expected
to reach 15 Mt. with the increase of per capita annual consumption
by 0.5 kg.
4. In large (1 million population) and middle-size (100 thousand to
1 million population) cities, all enterprises in meat businesses
should have a full food safety traceability system.
5. The number of slaughter houses will be reduced from 21,000 in
2010 to 3500 in 2015 by consolidation and integration. Half at
the national level and 80% in developing regions of the manual
and semi-mechanized meat production enterprises are expected
to be eliminated.
However, the meat industry in China is facing tough problems including limited resources of animal feed and meat quality and safety.
Food safety and meat quality are likely to be the focus of urban demand, while rural demand will be driven mainly by quantitative
growth. The reduction in cultivatable land and the decreasing numbers of farmers will result in the inevitable decrease of resources for
animal feed, posting a huge challenge on the sustainability of the animal production industry. For example, cropland is expected to decline from 135 million hectares in 2003 to 129 million hectares in
2030. This fact brings the question whether the production of meat
and animal feed in China will be adequate to keep pace with the

195

increasing demand for meat in the near future. To improve the meat
quality and safety, China has to extend their research and application
of advanced technology in meat industry. The key technologies for
China meat industry to be applied include PACCP (Palatability Assurance Critical Control Points), online-detection system, automatic
grading system, vacuum chilling, non-thermal processing, active
packaging and others. China needs to establish better standard and
regulations or laws in the area of meat industry and adjust the functions of different departments of government in order to improve
meat safety. In conclusion, China meat industry has been experiencing a transition period from traditional farmer style to intensication
development. This fast transition provides both challenges and opportunities for meat research and industry in China and the global
market.
Acknowledgment
The data in the paper was mainly from the report Animal product
processing and meat food safety: meat processing technology and
quality and safety control sponsored by the Major Consulting Projects of Chinese Academy of Engineering. The authors thank Dr. Ron
Tume for his help during the preparation of the manuscript.
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