Mar 28, 2025
AgResearch senior scientist Renyu Zhang presenting at the Meat Innovation Workshop earlier this month.
The 2025 Meat Innovation Workshop was held 11-12 March in Palmerston North, jointly hosted by AgResearch and the Meat Industry Association, in collaboration with Deer Industry New Zealand (DINZ). This year, the programme included a Dragon’s Den component, modelled on the now-global TV phenomenon of pitching ideas for investment.
Finalists pitched their ideas to a panel of judges made up of leading figures from the primary sector, with the winning pitch awarded $10,000 to develop a business case to progress the idea to a research project.
The winning pitch came from AgResearch senior scientist Renyu Zhang, whose idea was for a meat flake product, where lower-value mechanically deboned meat is turned into an added-value product boasting a high umami flavour. The flakes would be stable at room temperature and could be used as a flavour enhancer.
DINZ Research and Policy Manager Emil Murphy was at the event and singled out the presentation on research into the comparative advantage of venison over bison, also involving Zhang, as something of real interest to the deer industry.
“Our deer farmers produce one of the best proteins in the world. However, without maintaining world-class processing, or building knowledge to support this when talking to consumers, we risk being swept over by other products claiming superiority – sometimes on very shaky evidence. The Innovation Workshop is an opportunity to bring industry and researchers together to spark new ideas,” says Murphy.
With North America a key focus market for the New Zealand venison industry under the North American Retail Accelerator (NARA) programme, differentiation from products such as bison – seen as perhaps the closest competitor in the more natural and sustainable premium protein market segment – is a key outcome of the research.
The research found that venison compared favourably to bison in a number of areas, including amino acids, concentrations of polyunsaturated fats, and some vitamins and minerals. It also found that different ages of venison could be pitched to different market segments.
For example, meat from older stags could be targeted at older adults, due to its rich vitamin content and lower cholesterol levels; while meat from young deer (under three years of age) could conversely be pitched to younger, more active consumers, as this meat contains high levels of polyunsaturated fats, which include beneficial omega-3 fatty acids.
For a more fulsome recap of what the study found, check out the write-up on page 26 in the December 2024 issue of Deer Industry News.
