The Future of Meat Grading with Barbara Webster

Show Notes

Our guest on the podcast this week is Barbara Webster, co-founder of inMR. Barbara shares with Mark how inMR's Marbl™ technology uses nuclear magnetic resonance to measure intramuscular fat quickly, accurately and non-invasively, delivering a new standard to the industry.

In the last few years, the technology has been successfully implemented in lamb-carcass grading. inMR are in the process of adapting it to other applications, such as beef carcasses and live animals. 

While MRI technology has been around for a while, Barbara shares the challenges of adapting this technology for industrial use in a meatworks environment. One such challenge is speed. Their current model measures around four to five carcasses a minute. One of their development projects is a twin-sensor system that will measure 10 to 12 carcasses a minute. 

Fortunately, another common challenge frequently faced by the industry - labour shortages - has been less of an issue for inMR. They chose to pursue an automated process, with data feeding directly into the system, rather than relying on someone standing there to do the measuring. “The weight of our sensor took us down that path, but I think it's a key point of difference and adds a lot of value,” shares Barbara.

Barbara points out that funding from organisations such as MLA and SFF Futures, along with investment by Ovation New Zealand, have been instrumental in advancing these innovations. “We've been very lucky and we've had tremendous support from funding agencies that invest in new technology development,” explains Barbara. 

With the continuous innovation in robotics, sensors and AI, the next decade is going to be very interesting when it comes to tech in agriculture. Current technologies such as x-ray scanning and robotic cutting - along with emerging applications for MRI - are already in use. Mark and Barbara both share the belief that AI opens up doorways for automation and innovation like never before. "I think we're going to see a huge leap forward because our ability to cope with naturally varying product for automation applications is going to only become easier now with those tools,” highlights Barbara. 

Whether you are a meat industry professional, a technology enthusiast or simply curious about the future of food production, make sure to tune in to this episode to learn more about the cutting-edge technologies that are set to transform the meat industry!

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