MLC Wants Restaurants to State Origin of Meat

Britain’s Meat and Livestock Commission (MLC) wants
restaurants to adopt a voluntary scheme to identify on their
menus the origin of the meat they serve.

Its call follows a survey carried out in April in which 51%
of respondents said they wanted a law to be introduced forcing
restaurants and pubs to state where their meat came from. Only
18% thought a voluntary code was the way forward.

Paul Berkahn, divisional manager of Toops Fresh, Wellington
believes that the country of origin is not always going to reflect
the quality in New Zealand. He believes it is the grade of meat
which is paramount. In the UK, the origin of meat is most likely
still an issue due to BSE (mad cow disease) and the consumer
wishing to know their meat comes from a country of origin that
is BSE free, to which, New Zealand is.

The majority of New Zealanders are unaware that there are many
grades of beef ranging from high quality to manufacturing grinding
beef and price reflects such.

Paul says that large amounts of Australian “S” grade beef have
been coming into NZ with 380 tonne being an unconfirmed figure
he recently heard.

As you will see the “S” grade from Australia refers to steer
(old steer). In NZ “PS” grade (that is NZ produced young steer
grade) is good quality, but, the Australian “S” grade does not
measure up to NZ “PS” at all. The Australian “S” grade is much
cheaper also.

The Australian “YG” grade is of good quality and is price fairly
compared to NZ “PS” as these two products are similar in quality
(depending on the region beef is grown and also the producing
plants).

Would you be happy stating meat origins on your menu and is
the NZ diner of today concerned about meat origins and quality?