UK meat officials are lobbying hard for an early end to cattle meat safety regulations which, they claim, have distorted the market for slow-matured beef.
The British Meat Processors Association (BMPA) together with the Meat and Livestock Commission (MLC) is calling for the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) urgently to revise its opinion on the safety of meat from cattle aged 24 to 30 months and lift the requirement for vertebral columns to be removed. The earliest a decision is likely to be made is April, but it could take up to eight months for the UK to implement changes.
Despite growing consumer demand for older meat from grass-reared and native breeds, a political trade-off to secure Britain's re-entry to European beef markets last year, meant that supply was being constrained and less was finding its way on to retail shelves, said the BMPA.
"From a food safety point of view there's no reason to do it, and it causes two issues in the supply chain," said Maurice McCartney, BMPA director. "First, animals and carcases over 24 months have to be segregated at the killing plant and at the processors. Second, there are restrictions on the movement of those carcases. People are saying it's not worth the hassle to buy animals over 24 months, so it's constraining supply to retailers. Meanwhile, farmers are telling us that there is a price differential appearing in the market between animals under and over 24 months because of the extra cost of handling product in the chain."
According to the MLC, until last year as many as a third of all prime beef animals presented for slaughter were between 27 and 30 months. While that figure had almost certainly fallen, comparisons were hard to draw because changes to the subsidy system had removed the incentive for farmers to keep cattle beyond two years, it said.