Carnivores cut code to hack meat

A mashup of butchers and hackers might sound like something out of a bad horror flick — indeed the lack of technological literacy and deployment within the meat business might cause nightmares for some.

To help give the industry an upgrade, Food+Tech Connect gathered corporate leaders, policy influencers, and software developers for a hackathon to reimagine the future of meat: Hack//Meat.

Participants took on one of six challenges to provide tools for producers, distributors, and/or consumers to address problems regarding inefficient meat processes. Mobile and web apps examined brand outreach, livestock data, and retailer inventory. The hackathon winners, detailed below, earned cash, strategy sessions with marketers, a paid dinner to Briskettown, and coworking passes to Grind.

First place: CARV

“CARV” is a web-enabled scale and label printer that captures and manages data about individual cuts of meat by type, which can be automatically converted into reports and invoices for anyone in the value chain. Sales tracking and analytics can help producers maximize income. Most importantly, it is native to a farmer’s workflow.

Second place: Slot for Slaught

Slot for Slaught is a tool to better manage and coordinate the scheduling and processing of animals through meat facilities and enhance communication flow between producers and processors. Farmers can find details about specific plants, book availability for slaughtering, and submit information about their order. Custom or stock follow-up emails can also be generated.

Third place: Meat

Meat integrates with the Foursquare API to allow grocery store visitors to make requests on what they’d like to see stocked on the shelves. Customers can see what others are interested in buying, and store management can notify people with what orders have been fulfilled. Additionally, distributors can see clusters of particular requests in a map view.

More food-for-thought projects can be found here. For more hackathon coverage, check out the winners of AngelHack NY and Dwolla’s Old Macdonald Hack Day.

Image credit: Thinkstock