Meat Central

The new building will support Wisconsin’s meat and poultry processing industries, which have total annual sales of $8.6 billion. Michael P. King

The Department of Animal and Dairy Sciences celebrated the completion of its new Meat Science and Animal Biologics Discovery facility with a virtual event in November. The new building, which replaces a lab built in 1931, will support Wisconsin’s meat and poultry processing industries, which employ some 16,250 workers and have total annual sales of $8.6 billion.

The meat science program shows how much animal science has developed from its early days teaching the best ways to farm and process meat. It involves research, teaching, and outreach in the areas of meat science, food safety, and animal biologics — value-added molecules from animal tissues that function as medicines or therapeutics.

The 67,540-square-foot building houses a meat and poultry processing facility, as well as a separate Biosafety Level 2 processing and lab facility for food safety research. The building also boasts a new Bucky’s Varsity Meats retail store (formerly Bucky’s Butchery), which sells UW-produced cuts to the public.

The building’s main atrium is named in honor of Mark Cook, a professor of animal sciences who passed away in 2017 and who spearheaded the animal biologics component of the meat science program.

You can catch the virtual celebration, complete with photos of the facility, profiles of faculty and staff, messages from alumni, faculty, and friends, and a special meat-related playlist.

“Cheeseburger in Paradise,” anyone?

Published in the Spring 2021 issue