David Pethick

Australia has developed for about 20 years the Meat Standards Australia (MSA) grading scheme to predict beef eating quality and hence better satisfy beef consumers. More than 3.1 million cattle were processed through MSA pathways in 2017-18. The cattle presented for MSA grading accounted for 43% of the national adult cattle slaughter and 94.3% of cattle presented for grading met MSA minimum requirements. The Meat Livestock Australia has also developed the MSA index, which indicates an eating quality potential at the whole carcass level. Since 2011, the average MSA Index has increased by roughly 1.5% from 2010-11 to 2016-17 to reach 57.78 in 2017-18. More than 5,000 meat producers became registered to supply livestock through the MSA program, and the average price differential between MSA and non-MSA carcasses from young cattle across all weight ranges (excluding accredited grainfed cattle) was $0.21/kg (and $0.13/kg for cattle that met grainfed accreditation standards). Thus, in the last year, it is estimated that the MSA program delivered an additional AUD$152 million in farm gate returns for beef producers in Australia.

This paper summarises some of the findings resulting from Meat and Livestock Australia's (MLA) research program that investigates the eating quality of sheepmeats. The research began with an Industry consultation process involving producers, processors, wholesalers, retailers, food service and scientists who developed a series of 'best bet' critical control points that might determine consumer acceptability of sheepmeats