To one of the world's leading beef cattle producing regions.

In August 2018, five students and two faculty members from Osaka Prefecture University's Department of Life and Environmental Sciences (primarily veterinary medicine and plant science) visited a processing plant in Australia that supplies beef to our group, accompanied by a representative from Zensho Holdings' food safety department.

As part of its curriculum, Osaka Prefecture University arranges visits and tours of meat processing plants in Australia, primarily for students in the veterinary medicine course as well as the plant science course.

This field study program allows students to see and understand firsthand the hygiene management processes in international food distribution, from production to delivery to the store. Zensho Group supports this curriculum in cooperation with the company that operates the processing plant.

In addition to the factory tour, we also received explanations about the vast calf breeding and raising farms, as well as the fattening areas known as "feedlots."

Those black specks you see are individual cows.

Currently, about 60% of the beef distributed in Japan is imported from countries such as the United States and Australia. When domestically raised beef is processed for consumption in Japan, it is carried out in accordance with the "Slaughterhouse Law" as the basis for hygiene management.
However, in the case of imported beef, hygiene management at an international level is required, meaning that it must meet the standards of the exporting country, the importing country, and even third countries.

The students, who witnessed the high level of hygiene management firsthand, shared comments such as, "The hygiene level throughout the processing plant is high," "I was surprised that they not only consider food safety in meat processing, but also religious considerations such as halal, and that they are so thorough," and "I didn't understand why veterinarians worked in slaughterhouses and processing plants, but after this explanation and site visit, I understand the role of veterinarians."

A commemorative photo was taken with the processing plant we visited as the backdrop.

This was the third time we supported a learning tour for Osaka Prefecture University. We were able to help them gain a deeper understanding of the fact that Zensho Group's "food safety" is at an international level.