Meat Consumption In China Research Articles

Carbon footprint of household meat consumption in China: A life-cycle-based perspective

The food industry accounts for 25% of global carbon emissions, of which animal food accounts for 57%. Therefore, the reduction of carbon emissions from meat products consumption is one of the important issues of global climate governance. This study calculates and compares the carbon footprints of major meat products in China at various stages of production and consumption and the trends of their development based on life cycle assessment and questionnaires, which will help to understand the emission characteristics and reduction potential of the food sector in China. The results show that the main stages of the life cycle and the size of the total carbon footprint of the meat category for the same unit standard exhibit the following order: beef > mutton > pork > poultry (chicken and duck) > seafood (fish and shrimp); the farming factor has a greater impact on carbon emissions, followed by transportation and a smaller impact at the meal-making stage; from 2010 to 2021, China's total meat products consumption and carbon emissions continue to increase, but the structure of meat consumption is gradually diversified and balanced, and the trend of carbon emissions shows a slowdown in growth with structural changes. Finally, based on the results of the study, this paper proposes countermeasures for meat production and consumption.

Development and design of an intelligent monitoring system for cold chain meat freshness

Cold chain meat has become the main force of meat consumption in China due to its unique taste and rich nutrition. However, there are serious regulatory blind spots throughout the cold chain process, making it difficult to monitor the freshness quality and shelf life of cold chain meat in real time. Therefore, in this study, the dominant spoilage microorganism prediction model for cold chain meat was parsed to predict the logarithmic value of the dominant spoilage microorganism in real time based on temperature information, which was compared with the freshness quality threshold to derive real-time quality information. This paper proposes to develop the system with ASP.NET three-tier architecture as the development framework and .NET Framework 4.6.2 as the development environment. Combining MySQL 5.7.31 application database, Vue 2.6 and Apache ECharts front-end technology development a intelligent monitoring system for cold chain meat freshness. The system has five core application modules: multi-role login module, big data visualization and analysis module, product information management module, product freshness quality and shelf life real-time monitoring and warning module, and system setting module, to monitor the freshness quality and shelf life of cold chain meat products at all stages in real time. The development of this system can realize the real-time supervision of the quality of cold chain meat products in the whole industrial chain of the processing, storage, transportation and sales process, timely detect product abnormalities, provide technical support for food enterprises, and provide food safety assurance for consumers.

Identity labels as an instrument to reduce meat demand and encourage consumption of plant based and cultured meat alternatives in China

The rise of meat consumption in China has increased attention on efforts to mitigate the various environmental, health, and animal welfare consequences of animal agriculture. Plant-based products and cultured meat substitutes are emerging as alternatives to meat. Yet, little is known about consumer preferences for these products and approaches to increasing their consumption in the world’s largest consumer market. This study uses a food choice experiment to provide evidence from a survey of 3015 urban Chinese consumers on preferences for plant-based and cultured alternatives relative to a traditional pork product. We test the effectiveness of food identity labels at increasing demand by randomly assigning respondents to treatments that connect the animal welfare, environmental, and health benefits of the product to the purchaser’s identity. Given the prevalence of consumption away from home, we also assess the effects of consumption location on preferences. Results show that traditional tofu products can capture approximately 26% market share, new-generation plant-based alternatives 21%, and cultured pork 11% of the market. Food identity labels effectively reduced demand for traditional pork products while increasing relative demand for plant-based and cultured pork. We did not find significant differences in preferences between at-home and away from home consumption settings. We discuss the potential of plant-based and cultured meat alternatives to reduce the consumption of meat products in China and the use of identity labels as an instrument to achieve government and policy objectives.

Pork primal cuts recognition method via computer vision

Pork accounts for more than 33% of global meat consumption and dominates meat consumption in China. With the improvement of people's quality of life, people pay more and more attention to the quality of pork. There are many factors that affect the quality of pork, and the cutting position of pork is also one of them. The quality of different pork primal cuts varies greatly. Aiming at the difficulty of distinguishing pork primal cuts, this study proposes a computer vision-based method to identify different pork primal cuts, using images of four different pork primal cuts (ham, loin, belly, and neck) as the experimental data, the results show that the method proposed in this paper can identify the original cuts of pork well. It also proves that computer vision technology has the potential to help people identify pork cuts.

Consumer preference, behaviour and perception about lamb meat in China

A questionnaire including 31 questions was conducted in thirty-one provinces of China's thirty-four provinces. A total of 7212 questionnaires were received in the research and 3775 valid questionnaires were used in the final data analysis. Around 86.0% of the respondents from the selected valid questionnaires liked eating lamb meat. About 66.7% of the respondents from the selected valid questionnaires preferred to use fresh lamb meat for cooking. Stewing was the most popular cooking method for lamb meat consumption in China. Almost 70.0% of the respondents from the selected valid questionnaires preferred to consume local lamb meat rather than imported lamb meat. Food safety, lamb breed and meat origin were the top three factors concerned when the respondents purchase lamb meat. >65.0% of the respondents from the selected valid questionnaires preferred to purchase traceable lamb meat. In conclusion, the development of technologies to maintain fresh lamb meat quality and traceable lamb meat products are required in China.

Chicken meat taste preferences, perceived risk of human infection with avian influenza virus, and self-reported chicken meat consumption in China

Chinese consumers often prefer to buy live chickens for cooking at home rather than chilled or frozen chicken meat because of the superior flavor. Even though the purchase of live chickens for consumption was restricted by the Chinese government after the avian influenza (AI) virus outbreak in 2013, people continue to buy live chickens. Thus, it is important to understand why people make this decision. The goal of this study was to investigate the relationships among chicken meat taste preferences, perceived risk of human infection with AI virus, and chicken meat consumption behaviors in China. To address this, a survey of 1108 individuals was carried out in Jiangsu Province. This province was selected because its per capita consumption of poultry products is higher than the national average, and it is at the highest risk for avian influenza A H7N9 and H5N1 virus epidemics out of all provinces in China. Descriptive statistics, multivariate linear regression, and hierarchical regression modeling were used to analyze the data. The results showed that Chinese consumers still buy live chickens at a high rate due to taste preferences, and have a very low perceived risk of infection with AI virus. Multivariate linear and hierarchical regression analyses showed that total monthly household income was significantly and positively associated with the perceived importance of chicken taste; the number of people in the household and the perceived importance of chicken taste were significantly and positively associated with the purchase of live chickens for consumption; age was significantly and negatively associated with the purchase of chilled and frozen chicken for consumption; and education and expertize in livestock-related fields were significantly and positively associated with the purchase of live chickens for consumption. Expertize in livestock-related fields was significantly and positively associated with perceived risk of human infection with AI virus, and perceived risk was significantly and positively associated with the purchase of chilled chicken for consumption. However, the perceived risk of human infection with AI virus had no effect on the relationship between the perceived importance of chicken taste and the purchase of live chickens for consumption. The findings from this study suggest that, over time and with increasing public education, the purchase of live poultry for consumption will gradually decline in China. However, to accelerate this process, measures should be taken to reduce consumer perception of taste differences between chilled chicken meat and meat from freshly killed chickens. In addition, educating consumers about livestock to enhance their risk perception could also be another effective means of promoting the purchase of chilled and frozen chicken meat.

Reflection: An update on China’s wild meat consumption since COVID-19

Wildlife consumption in China has been widely condemned by academics and the public since COVID-19 was determined to have a zoonotic source by the World Health Organization. This reflection piece provides an up-to-date summary of wild meat consumption in China since COVID-19. It shows that there is an all-round transition underway. COVID-19 stopped wild meat consumption directly or made an impact by functioning as a new background or event. People’s demand has been reduced due to strict law enforcement, fines, and profound propaganda efforts. This has implications for controlling wildlife trade and consumption in some other countries similar to China. This reflection particularly re-interprets the motivations of consumers of wild meat since the outbreak of the disease and considers the reasons why people do not consume wildlife. This might be the first empirical work on China’s wild meat consumption before and after COVID-19, which explores the transformation around this eating habit and makes a few evidence-based predictions. Although there are good signs that we can expect an effective reduction of China’s wild meat consumption in the future, there is the call for a well-established legal system and strict implementation of laws and other strategies, and a widespread consumer education in food habits.

African swine fever in China: Impacts, responses, and policy implications

African Swine Fever broke out in China in August 2018 and has caused a substantial loss to China’s hog industry. Pork is the dominant meat in the Chinese diet with its price being a critical component of China’s Consumer Price Index. In 2019, large increases in the pork price caused by the sharp reduction in pork supply incentivized the government to suppress the price by subsidizing large-scale hog farms. With an updated estimation of China’s meat demand, we argue that the ongoing policy interventions may not be the most efficient for achieving short-run reductions in the pork price. Subsidizing the production of chicken, a major substitute for pork and currently accounting for a relatively small share of meat consumption in China, could help suppress the pork price faster and at lower government costs. We estimate price dynamics and compute consumer surplus of multiple subsidy plans over a 30-month window from the third quarter of 2019 to the last quarter of 2021. Simulation outcomes suggest that allocating some subsidies from hog to chicken farms is likely to benefit consumers, producers, and the government. Our novel proposal of expanding production of a substitute meat to help lower the pork price after a large loss of the hog stock may be useful to other countries that suffer or may suffer from severe livestock losses due to animal epidemics.

Duck HMGB2 Mediates Signaling Pathways in the Innate Immunity of Hosts Against Viral Infections.

High-mobility group box 2 (HMGB2) belongs to the HMG-box family that participates in a variety of biologic processes. Recent studies have suggested that HMGB2 plays an important role in the innate immunity of fish. Cherry Valley duck is the main duck bred for meat consumption in China, but there is limited research available on the impact of duck HMGB2 (duHMGB2) in antiviral innate immunity. Here, duHMGB2 genes were first cloned and analyzed from the spleen of Cherry Valley ducks. We show that duHMGB2 is widely distributed in most tissues of healthy ducks, and duHMGB2 was differentially expressed in three organs (the spleen, brain, and lung) of ducks during different viral infections. duHMGB2 is mainly expressed in the nucleus of duck embryo fibroblast (DEF) cells. However, duHMGB2 is released into the cytoplasm after viral infection. DuHMGB2 induced expression of several genes that regulate the immune response. Moreover, duHMGB2 activated and upregulatede transcription factor NF-κB promoter activity. We also used single gene manipulations (knockout or overexpression) to confirm that duHMGB2 can inhibit the replication of duck plague virus, duck Tembusu virus, and the novel duck reovirus in DEF cells. These data show that duHMGB2 can activate the antiviral innate immunity of the host. Thus, duHMGB2 may be considered an immune adjuvant against infectious diseases in duck.

People and Nature in an Urban World

Humanity is facing an existential contradiction: we are building an urban future for ourselves, yet urbanization in its current form is threatening the very future of humanity and the natural world. Urban growth is a seemingly unstoppable worldwide process. Much has been written about this historic trend, but the environmental impacts of an urbanizing world are barely discussed.

Meat demand in China: to include or not to include meat away from home?

This study examines meat consumption in China, the world's largest meat consumer and producer, by considering both meat consumed at home and away from home based upon a diary‐based household survey. The results indicate that income growth leads to beef, poultry, other meat and pork away from home consumption to grow more than proportionally to total meat consumption. We also find that meats consumed away from home grow faster than at home counterparts due to higher income elasticities, suggesting that ignoring meat away from home could significantly underestimate current and future meat consumption.

Prospective “warm-glow” of reducing meat consumption in China: Emotional associations with intentions for meat consumption curtailment and consumption of meat substitutes

Consumers' food choices strongly affect the environment, particularly as a result of the production and consumption of meat. From an environmental standpoint, it is important to gain a better understanding of how consumers can be motivated to eat less meat, particularly in non-Western countries where few studies on this topic have been conducted. The current study was conducted in China, where the level of meat consumption has increased rapidly. The findings indicate that prospective “warm-glow” feelings are positively related with consumers' intention to reduce meat consumption; this relation is stronger than the respective relations of both perceived sustainability and perceived health benefits with the intention to reduce meat consumption. Prospective “warm-glow” feelings are more strongly positively associated with the intention to reduce meat consumption via curtailment, than with the intention to consume (more) meat substitutes.

Factors affecting households' meat purchase and future meat consumption changes in China: a demand system approach

BackgroundChina is the world's largest meat market. If consumption of meat in China continues to grow, there will likely be greater business opportunities for meat producers both in and outside of China. As a result, meat exporting countries such as the U.S. may be influenced by changes in meat consumption in China. A better understanding of future meat demand in China will benefit both producers and exporters. The aim of this study was to evaluate factors that affect households' meat purchase and to estimate future meat consumption changes in China. MethodsThis study was based on primary data collected from a consumer survey in Guangzhou city in 2014. A total of 617 completed questionnaires were obtained from the consumer survey. An advanced linear approximated almost ideal demand system was used for data analysis. ResultsThe results indicated that the average household monthly purchase of pork, chicken, beef, and mutton was 2.90 kg, 1.47 kg, 0.77 kg, and 0.33 kg, respectively. Estimated expenditure elasticities for each meat item were 0.78, 1.02, 1.34, and 1.83, respectively. The uncompensated own price elasticities for each corresponding meat item were −0.79, −0.75, −0.70, and −0.25, respectively. The compensated own price elasticities were −0.44, −0.47, −0.46, and −0.14, respectively. High-income households purchased more meat, especially pork, chicken and mutton, than low-income households. Meat consumption pattern will be affected by income changes. ConclusionCollectively these results suggest that there will be a potential meat market expansion in China, and that pork consumption will increase at a quantity much larger than other meat items in the near future, assuming that consumer income will continue to increase. China's projected increase in meat demand will eventually stimulate greater meat imports, which may have a significant influence on meat exporting countries in the world.

Can China’s meat imports be sustainable? A case study of mad cow disease

ABSTRACTRising demand and constrained domestic production have challenged the meat consumption in China. To fill the gap between domestic demand and supply, China imports an increasing volume of meat products from the international market. However, outbreaks of animal diseases can jeopardize China’s ability to meet its need for consumable meat. This article investigates the impact of animal disease outbreaks on the sustainability of China’s meat imports by using the episode of bovine spongiform encephalopathy in the United States in 2003 as a case study. Our results show that China’s meat imports are becoming more diversified and sustainable. The outbreak did have significant negative impacts on beef imports from the United States. During the epidemic, not only was China able to increase beef imports from other major exporters, but it also increased imports of other animal products such as edible offal and pork. Our findings indicate that international trade can serve as a reliable source to meet China’s soaring meat consumption.

Accurate market price formation model with both supply-demand and trend-following for global food prices providing policy recommendations

Recent increases in basic food prices are severely affecting vulnerable populations worldwide. Proposed causes such as shortages of grain due to adverse weather, increasing meat consumption in China and India, conversion of corn to ethanol in the United States, and investor speculation on commodity markets lead to widely differing implications for policy. A lack of clarity about which factors are responsible reinforces policy inaction. Here, for the first time to our knowledge, we construct a dynamic model that quantitatively agrees with food prices. The results show that the dominant causes of price increases are investor speculation and ethanol conversion. Models that just treat supply and demand are not consistent with the actual price dynamics. The two sharp peaks in 2007/2008 and 2010/2011 are specifically due to investor speculation, whereas an underlying upward trend is due to increasing demand from ethanol conversion. The model includes investor trend following as well as shifting between commodities, equities, and bonds to take advantage of increased expected returns. Claims that speculators cannot influence grain prices are shown to be invalid by direct analysis of price-setting practices of granaries. Both causes of price increase, speculative investment and ethanol conversion, are promoted by recent regulatory changes-deregulation of the commodity markets, and policies promoting the conversion of corn to ethanol. Rapid action is needed to reduce the impacts of the price increases on global hunger.

Demographics, societal aging, and meat consumption in China

Drawn on the data collected by surveying 1 340 urban households from six cities in China, this paper estimates the impacts of demographic structure and population aging on household meat consumption, by jointly considering meat consumed at home and away from home. Based on the trajectories of population, a simple simulation on meat demand trend in China is conducted subsequently. The results suggest: 1) Meat consumed away from home averagely accounts for near 30% of household total meat consumption in terms of quantity, so that its omission likely leads to a significant underestimate of total meat consumption and misunderstanding the driving forces; 2) population aging significantly and negatively affects per capita meat consumption, suggesting that the expected meat demand in China without considering population aging will be overestimated. The findings from this study have important implications for better understanding the relative issues on China's meat consumption under the situation of population aging.

The puzzle of the missing meat: Food away from home and China's meat statistics

From 1985, an increasing gap has emerged between the official statistical measures of meat production and meat consumption in China, which has raised concerns from many researchers using such data. In this paper we report the results of 428 observations (survey of 107 urban and rural households×4 quarters) from 7 provinces conducted in 2010, and compare them with the official statistical data from the National Bureau of Statistics of China (NBSC). We conclude that the main reason for the discrepancy is due to the underreporting of consumption, which is due mainly to the omission of consumption away from home.

The transitional dynamics of caloric ecosystems: changes in the food supply around the world

Changes to the global food supply have been characterized by greater availability of edible oils, sweeteners, and meats – a profound ‘nutrition transition’ associated with rising obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Through an analysis of three longitudinal databases of food supply, sales, and economics across the period 1961–2010, we observed that the change in global food supply has been characterized by a dramatic rise in pig meat consumption in China and poultry consumption in North America. These changes have not been experienced by all rapidly developing countries, and are not well explained by changes in income. The changes in food supply include divergence among otherwise similar neighboring countries, suggesting that the changes in food supply are not an inevitable result of economic development. Furthermore, we observed that the nutrition transition does not merely involve an adoption of ‘Western’ diets universally, but can also include an increase in the supply of edible oils that are uncommon in Western countries. Much of the increase in sales of sugar-sweetened beverages and packaged foods is attributable to a handful of multinational corporations, but typically from products distributed through domestic production systems rather than foreign importation. While North America and Latin America continued to have high sugar-sweetened beverage and packaged food sales in recent years, Eastern Europe and the Middle East have become emerging markets for these products. These findings suggest further study of natural experiments to identify which policies may mitigate nutritional risk factors for chronic disease in the context of economic development.

Fatty and lean red meat consumption in China: Differential association with Chinese abdominal obesity

AimWe examined the longitudinal association between red meat (RM) consumption and the risk of abdominal obesity in Chinese adults. Methods and resultsOur data are from 16,822 adults aged 18–75 in the China Health and Nutrition Survey from 1993 to 2011. We assessed RM intake with three 24-h dietary recalls. We defined abdominal obesity as a waist circumference (WC) ≥85 centimeters (cm) for men and ≥80 cm for women. Multilevel mixed-effect regression models showed that men experienced WC increases of 0.74 cm (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.39–1.09) from a higher total intake of fresh RM and 0.59 cm (95% CI: 0.24–0. 95) from a higher intake of fatty fresh RM but 0.14 cm (95% CI: −0.39 to 0.66) from a higher intake of lean fresh RM in the top quartile versus non-consumers when adjusted for potential confounders. In contrast, after additional adjustment for baseline WC, the odds ratios of abdominal obesity in men were attenuated for total fresh RM (1.25 [95% CI: 1.06–1.47]) and fatty fresh RM (1.22 [95% CI: 1.03–1.44]) but were still not affected by lean fresh RM (0.95 [95% CI: 0.75–1.22]). Women also showed a positive association of fatty fresh RM intake with abdominal obesity. ConclusionGreater intake of fatty fresh RM was significantly associated with higher WC (men only) and abdominal obesity risk in Chinese adults. The gender-specific differential association of fatty versus lean fresh RM warrants further study.

Fatty and lean red meat consumption in China: Differential association with Chinese abdominal obesity

Fatty and lean red meat consumption in China: Differential association with Chinese abdominal obesity