Theme 3: Lamb Shelf-life

Research on enhancing the shelf-life and quality of lamb meat, will include investigation and validation of changes to current processing and packaging systems. This work will embrace interventions to reduce and better manage lamb meat spoilage, and will be done in tandem with research on the potential use of new sustainable packaging materials which give appropriate shelf-life, safety, and reduce meat and packaging waste. A holistic multidisciplinary approach will be taken which includes Research Providers with packing expertise, microbiologists, meat technologists and sensory scientists working together with lamb processors. The output will facilitate the Irish lamb industry in the uptake of the best available technologies and practices to produce high quality lamb meat with appropriate shelf life for local or distant markets, while meeting targets to use more eco-friendly packaging systems.

Programme Lead

Dr Geraldine Duffy is Head of the Food Safety Department at Teagasc, Ashtown, Dublin, and is a Senior Principal Research Officer. Her specific area of interest is microbial food safety including the transmission, behaviour and control of microbial pathogens along the farm to fork chain. Her research has had a particular focus on Shigatoxigenic E. coli (STEC) in food production animals and red meat. She has participated in many national and EU Commission funded research programmes and is widely published in the field of microbial food safety. She is a member of the Scientific Committee of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) and Chair of its Biological Safety Sub-Committee. She has also served as a food safety expert for the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the World Health Organisation (WHO)/ Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).