Australian scientists say they have identified new genetic markers that will allow Australian producers to increase the lean meat yield and productivity of their sheep. The research, undertaken by the Cooperative Research Centre for Sheep Industry Innovation (Sheep CRC) in conjunction with Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA), will provide sheep breeders with the ability to use DNA testing early in an animal’s life to identify a wide range of traits, including meat quality. The Sheep CRC research,... ...Read more »

Woolworths has become the first national supermarket to offer certified Meat Standards Australia (MSA) graded Australian beef to customers. Woolworths has been working with Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) for over a decade on developing the MSA grading system. MSA is an industry audited program that delivers an eating quality guarantee. The grading system has been developed following years of research and more than 550,000 consumer product tests on 78,500 cuts of meat, using eight cooking methods. MSA... ...Read more »

A Sydney butcher who used illegal additives to make meat appear more appealing has been fined over A$9,000 by the Chief Industrial Magistrates Court, relating to four offences under the New South Wales Food Act. New South Wales Food Authority’s Acting CEO, Craig Sahlin, said the court’s decision to fine Abdul Hassan, trading as Green Valley Halal Meats a total of A$9,000 plus costs was a stern reminder to those who flout food safety laws. An officer from the NSW Authority visited Green Valley... ...Read more »

The Federal Government’s Food Safety Information Council (FSIC) is urging more consumers to use meat thermometers in order to decrease the risk of food poisoning. The Food Safety Information Council is a non-profit entity supported by the Australian Department of Health and Ageing, state and territory health and food safety agencies, local government, and leading professional, industry and community organisations. According to Newspoll research released today, which was commissioned by the FSIC,... ...Read more »

A new Meat Standards Australia (MSA) symbol that identifies beef that has met an independent consumer standard for tenderness, juiciness and flavour, has been rolled out to butchers and fresh food retailers across Australia. Featuring Australia’s traditional colours, the green and gold ‘MSA graded’ symbol will be positioned as a quality mark, indicating that brands have been graded to meet MSA standards. The MSA grading system was developed by the beef industry in 1999. Nearly 90,000 consumers... ...Read more »

Australia’s peak pork industry organisation, Australian Pork Limited, has criticised the Australian Government for failing to notify the industry of illegal pork imports from South Korea in 2010, when South Korea was in the midst of a serious outbreak of foot and mouth disease. Chief executive officer of Australian Pork Limited (APL), Andrew Spencer said the APL only found out about the illegal imports through a government report published last week by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and... ...Read more »

The World Trade Organization (WTO) has ruled that current U.S. Country of Origin Labelling (CoOL) measures are inconsistent with the U.S.’s WTO trade obligations. The WTO had examined complaints by Canada regarding the United States’ current CoOL requirements. The U.S. Food, Conservation and Energy Act imposes mandatory CoOL for beef, pork, chicken, lamb and goat as well as some perishables sold by U.S. retailers. The WTO ruled that the requirements discriminate against foreign livestock. In... ...Read more »

New research from Harvard University, in the U.S., has shown that cooked meat provides more energy than raw meat. The researchers claim their findings suggest cooking played a pivotal role in human evolution by increasing the energy content of some foods. Conducted by Rachel Carmody, a student in Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the research also raises... ...Read more »

The Australian Government’s Primary Industries Ministerial Council (PIMC) has ruled that ritual slaughter methods will continue to be exempt from any “stunning” requirements. The decision came at the end of last week (28 October 2011) when the PIMC considered the issue in Melbourne at its 21st meeting. Jewish and Muslim dietary laws do not allow for animals to be stunned before application of the knife by the slaughterer. In respect of this, a number of abattoirs where Kosher slaughter or Halal... ...Read more »

The Australian Government’s main food regulatory standards agency, Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ), has begun development of a new food production and processing standard for game meat (Proposal P1014). The purpose of the new standard is to achieve a nationally consistent approach to the management of meat safety. Development of this standard will require extensive stakeholder involvement with a minimum two rounds of public consultation. FSANZ has said there will be opportunity to... ...Read more »