A company that operates a lamb processing works in New South Wales has been put on the name and shame register and has been fined $66.000 plus costs for substituting older sheep for lamb.
The commentary goes on to say consumers have a right to have confidence in any meat label is correct. Once a lamb starts to get its permanent teeth it can’t be called a lamb and is a hogget.
It is interesting to look at beef when you sell a beast the meat off that beast it can be graded as according to age e.g. – y, yg; yp, pr and A. Of course the older the beast the less the producer gets for that beast however when the meat comes off that discounted carcass and hit the retail shelves the discount cease and it can be simply sold as rump, scotch, porterhouse, etc. The advertising might say prime or even A. The cyher A comes from a full mouth beast or even a beast with this last two teeth with the rest having fallen out due to age.
MSA can come off a beast of any AGE and has three distinctive groups which gives an idea of eating quality however now we see the three distinctive groups, Star 3, 4, and 5 being sold as MSA. If one is expecting to get a top class eating quality of a low grade carcass that has slipped over the line with a very low mark you may be disappointed. In fact a lot of MSA product only gets in if it has been in a plastic bag or cryvat bag for 35 days of course nobody keeps that meat for 35 days which leads to poor quality product. Where are the audits?
It is good enough to take a lamb processor to court then why not take up poor quality beef that is masquerading as top class beef, the reason is ( greed).
NLIS once leaving the processing works beef can be sold by the carton or by the container load then the flow of information breaks down particularly if a retailer like the giant supermarkets buys say 10 tonnes of rump say each beast surprise 8 kg of rump this of course would need 1250 carcasses to supply 10 ton of rump.
A Coles manager says consumers aren’t too worried which farm the meat comes from as they just want confidence that Coles knows the point of origin. Here we go again if Coles can tell a consumer where the steak they consumed can be traced back to the farm of origin on a regular basis is simply ridiculous.
To see supermarkets continuously make these fictitious claims makes my blood boil.
Perhaps the MLA could do a research trial and trace meat off the supermarket shelves back to the farm of origin. This will prove just how well the system works or doesnt works.
I wish I was as confident of winning tatts.-from David Byard, Australian Beef Association
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