IF the Australian meat industry intends to do anything about artificial or ‘fake’ meat coat-tailing on traditional descriptive terminology, it will need to get its skates on as the new kids are already on the block and gaining followers at a rapid rate.
In late May, supermarket giant Tesco launched across 400 of its UK stores what is considered to be the first plant-based meat-style product described as being barely distinguishable from real meat in taste, texture and smell.
Dutch manufacturer Vivera uses wheat, soy, corn and other vegetables to create its meat substitutes and has called this new product Vivera Plant Based Steak.
According to British news sites, the initial consignment of 40,000 items sold out within a few days.
In response to the product’s market acceptance in the UK the manufacturer is reported to be increasing production faster than planned as it intends to launch into the Netherlands in June and wider Europe in the second half of this year.
Not to be outdone, major competitor to Tesco, Sainsbury’s, intends a similar 400 store-wide launch of a plant-based product that supposedly has all the characteristics of minced beef.
Simply called Minced, this product was created by Naturli’ Foods in Denmark and was introduced to that market earlier this year where demand has since been described as overwhelming.
Sainsbury’s it seems is intent on placing this plant-based product alongside traditional meats in the chiller cabinets.
But it appears from reports over the weekend that Woolworths in Australia may have already beaten Sainsbury’s to the punch with a similar product under a different brand name.
Funky Fields Minced appeared alongside the pre-packed sausages and meat patties in Woolworth’s chiller cabinets late last week causing National Party senator Barry O’Sullivan to demand that Woolworths pull it from the shelves and give it another name.
His statements reported in the media indicated a view that retailers have primary responsibility to consumers for what appears on labels and that they should self-regulate to avoid the need for government intervention.
Producer and meat processing peak bodies were similarly miffed by the supermarket’s action but largely seemed to have been blindsided by the development and uncertain as to what to do about it.
Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the National Party Michael McCormack reportedly palmed the matter off to the ACCC but National Farmers Federation president Fiona Simson seems to have a very different view on the role of government in this instance.
Quoted by a national broadcaster on Saturday, Ms Simson linked government with the idea of a labelling regime that served both consumers and producers.
In doing so she nominated France as the country to look to.
That is because France with its predilection for matters provenance took aim at this very issue with the passing of an amendment to an agricultural bill in April.
As a result, meat-related terminology such as steak and sausage will only be able to be used in France to describe products that are partly or wholly made of meat.
Failure to comply will attract fines of up to AU$460,000.
It was the decision of the European Court of Justice last year to rule that plant-based foods could not be sold in the EU using terms such as milk, butter and cheese that inspired farmer and MP Jean-Baptiste Moreau to table the French amendment.
A similar move is underway in the United States with a petition to the Department of Agriculture from the US Cattlemen’s Association calling for lab-grown and plant-based meat alternatives to not be allowed to use the terms “meat” or “beef” on their labelling.
For Fiona Simson to succeed in her quest for government intervention she will need to find an Australian foodie or farmer MP of the ilk of Monsieur Moreau to take carriage of the issue.
Good luck with that as so far there appears to be little appetite amongst the current ranks for such a task.
Rain in the south
GOOD rain in the south has finally occurred and the effects are starting to be felt with numbers tightening in saleyards and some tentative price changes beginning to emerge.
With 25-100mm widespread in Victoria and 20-30mm in the Riverina, the change now seems to be moving up the coast with Scone reported to be under some rain on Tuesday morning.
The change will likely cause southern processors to press harder to the north for suitable cattle and that will no doubt play out in southern Queensland’s saleyards in coming weeks but for the time being there has been no change to local over-the-hooks rates.
Indicator 4-tooth ox is still quoted at 470c/kg and heavy cow at 405.
As a guide to what sort of flow-on effect might carry through to the north, the cow market at Barnawartha last Wednesday jumped 6-11 cents with the heavies averaging 205 while at Pakenham on Tuesday this week the heavy-cow average climbed further to 214.
Well finished grass bullocks are now virtually absent in the south with only supplementary-fed types represented in small numbers.
As to the state of the Queensland kill, June seems to be fairly well covered but there would seem to be plenty of opportunity to book some space in July.
This brings into question the speculation by some market analysts recently that the herd was once again entering a liquidation phase.
Certainly the dry in the south has been responsible for an abnormally high proportion of females in the kill since March.
Queensland too has seen its higher overall kill level driven largely by females since mid-April but there may have been a pre-winter clean-out factor associated with that.
ABS figures show females rising to a massive 52.6pc of the kill in April from 48.5pc the month before.
May figures when they come through will probably be similar but things may now settle down with the rain in the south.