Artificial Intelligence: An Advanced Tool to Improve Safety and Quality in the Meat Industry

ABSTRACT The adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the meat industry signifies a transformative shift toward intelligent, secure, and sustainable food production systems. This review paper explores how AI is enhancing operations across the entire meat supply chain—including processing, quality assessment, spoilage identification, regulatory compliance, and logistics optimization. Conventional methods, often limited by human bias, workforce shortages, and inefficiencies, are being replaced by AI‐powered solutions such as machine learning, computer vision, hyperspectral imaging, smart sensors, and edge computing, enabling real‐time, non‐invasive, and data‐centric decision‐making. Beyond process automation, AI facilitates predictive safety controls, smart packaging technologies, and customized consumer engagement. Applications like robotic meat processing, cloud‐based traceability platforms, and smartphone‐integrated spoilage sensors highlight AI's contribution to precision meat processing. In addition, AI promotes clean‐label formulation, operational energy savings, and automated hygiene management via intelligent Cleaning‐in‐Place (CIP) systems. Global implementations—ranging from carcass grading systems in Australia and blockchain traceability in Europe to biosensor deployment in Asian markets—demonstrate the adaptability and impact of AI‐based solutions. Although barriers such as high implementation costs, lack of algorithmic transparency, and regulatory conservatism remain, the integration of AI with the Internet of Things (IoT), blockchain technology, and explainable AI (XAI) offers a promising pathway. This technological convergence is set to enhance food safety, boost consumer confidence, expand export potential, and redefine industrial competitiveness in the evolving post‐pandemic marketplace.