Our guest on this week’s episode is Dr. Bucky Gwartney, an International Marketing Specialist with the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service. He discusses about the role of USDA-AMS in providing beef grading services to large and small meat processors.

He is responsible for the development and oversight of red meat standards, which include the beef yield and quality grades, among other standards, and serve as a technical expert on many red meat related activities within USDA. He also serves as the USDA representative on several international standards organizations.

Meat our guest: He attended Oklahoma State University (OSU) where he received a B.S. in Agriculture, Animal Science and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Animal Science/Meat Science from the University of Nebraska.

Dr. Gwartney is very active in meat industry associations, serving as past president of the American Meat Science Association (AMSA) and as a past Muscle Foods Division Chair at the Institute of Food Technology. He was part of the research team that received the International Meat Secretariat Prize for Meat Science and Technology, is an AMSA Fellow and an OSU Graduate of Distinction.

In this episode you will learn about:

1. USDA-AMS

2. Beef grading

3. History of the U.S. grading system

4. Dentition as an age indicator

5. International meat science work

6. Grading at small meat facilities