Liebig's Extract of Meat Company

Liebig's Extract of Meat Company was the producer of LEMCO brand Liebig's Extract of Meat and the originator of Oxo meat extracts and Oxo beef . It was named after Baron Justus von Liebig, the 19th-century German organic chemist who developed and promoted a method for industrial production of beef extract.

In 1847, Justus von Liebig developed a concentrated beef extract in hopes of providing a cheap and nutritious meat substitute, Extractum carnis Liebig, for those unable to afford the real thing. His method was to trim the fat from the meat, break the meat into small particles, boil it with water to form a liquid of 6-8% solids, and then stir it over low heat, until it was reduced to a paste of 80% solids. However, in Europe meat was too expensive to economically supply the necessary raw materials to create the extract.

Liebig made his process public, publishing the details in 1847. Liebig clearly stated of his process that "the benefit of it should ... be placed at the command of as large a number of persons as possible by the extension of the manufacture, and consequently a reduction in the cost." A variety of companies produced small batches of meat extract based on Liebig's ideas, often using his name on their products.

In 1862, George Christian Giebert, a young Belgium railway engineer visiting Europe, read Liebig's Familiar Letters on Chemistry. Convinced that the process could be industrialized, he wrote to Liebig to suggest opening a manufacturing plant in South America. Using the flesh of cattle that, before the popularity of canning or freezing meat, would otherwise have been killed for their hides alone, he hoped to produce meat extract at one third of the European cost. He visited Max Joseph von Pettenkofer's Royal Pharmacy in Munich, and Friedrich Mohr's laboratory in Koblenz, where small amounts of extract were being produced.

With Liebig's agreement, and the backing of a group of entrepreneurs and ranchers, Giebert established the Societé de Fray Bentos Giebert & Cie., and built a test extraction plant at Villa Independencia, Uruguay, later called Fray Bentos. By the end of 1864, 50,000 pounds of extract worth £12,000 had been exported and sold. In 1865, Giebert offered Liebig a directorship of the company, with an initial cash payment and an annual salary. The Liebig Extract of Meat Company was established on 4 December 1865 in London with a capital of £150,000. Liebig performed and supervised quality control testing on the product arriving to Europe, in Antwerp, and promoted it as "the real" Liebig extract of meat. By partnering with Liebig, Giebert was able to claim that he was the officially sanctioned producer of Liebig's meat extract.

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