Australia's Woolworth warns on rating graded-beef on packaging

Woolworth, Australia's biggest retailer of Meat Standard Australia (MSA)-graded beef has warned against the introduction of 'star' ratings on packaging, as it would confuse customers and dilute the MSA message.

Woolworths' fresh food general manager Pat McEntee was responding to current industry discussions around the merits of presenting MSA-graded beef in categories that more specifically relate to their eating quality and cooking performance, such as three star (tenderness guaranteed), four star (premium tenderness) and five star (supreme tenderness).

McEntee has warned against introducing a new scheme, saying it would only confuse customers who are just coming to terms with the MSA trademark. In the 10 months since the giant supermarket retailer implemented its MSA 'branding' strategy on its beef offer, MSA beef sales have equated to US$172 million or a rise of 10.38% over the period. Some 9,000 cattle a week have been graded to MSA standards, with 98% compliance.

The good news on MSA through the Woolworths' channel comes as the industry debates the merits of changing how MSA and eating quality are conveyed to consumers through the wider adoption 'MSA four and five-star' brand messaging in a bid to categorise higher priced premium cuts, he said.

McGilchrist said the current MSA grading system, while showing great success in the marketplace, could potentially be revised in the future to enable more four-star and five-star beef cuts to be accepted into the MSA category. He said most Australian abattoirs were using a single boning group cut of between one and 18, with carcases graded into like eating quality production lots. Different processors across Australia set different boning groups and cut-offs to differentiate their product.

He said the majority of beef primal fails to meet MSA grading standards due to pH and colour or failing company specifications. The major issue arising from this system, in McGilchrist's view, is the MSA grading scheme is a pass or fail system based on the lowest quality primal, with no further segregation taking place. He said the system was inflexible and cattle could be grossly misrepresented, with many carcases downgraded based on as few as one cut by cook failing out of 136 possibilities.

In another example in Western Australia carried out last year, McGilchrist said a processor could increase revenue by about $80 more per carcase (estimated $400,000 pa) by using a premium four-star and five-star six cuts boning group system. He urged processors to consider customising carcase sorting to extract more MSA three, four and five-star beef to improve beef quality which will flow into the hotel and restaurant trade in Australia and overseas.