‘Meat stripes misleading’

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33521, 30 April 1974, Page 3

‘Meat stripes misleading’

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, April 29. “It is high time the consumers were told the truth about meat grading. They are being grossly misled by grade stripes which have little or no bearing on the eating quality of meat,” Mr D. J. Fyfe said today.

Mr Fyfe, the executive director of the New Zealand Meat Retailers’ Federation, said there was no reason why meat for local consumption could not be classified under the same scheme as applied with export meat. “The meat scientists will all confirm that at the point where the carcasses are examined it is quite impossible for a meat grader to determine with any degree of certainty whether the meat will be of good eating quality. "The grade striping of

meat was introduced as an essential pari of rationing! during the Second World War. Its purpose was to provide a means of describing and identifying not only carcasses of meat but also the cuts that, were taken from those carcasses.

“It was not Introduced as the consumer protection measure which most consumers believe it to be. It is quite farcical to continue: misleading the consumers in the way they have been these last 30 years,” said Mr Fyfe. “MISCONCEPTION” He said that most people did not understand the grad-1 ing system and about all they worked on was the miscon-< ception they had that every- ' thing with a red stripe on it was of top quality and every-1 thing with a blue stripe on it was of inferior quality. “If we in New Zealand have the ability to mark the eating quality on meat carcasses, then why don’t we do this with our export meat?” he asked, adding that if wej could guarantee the eating quality of our meat, we could lead the world by marketing 1 a meat product with a quality guarantee. "The fact is that it just can’t be done and the sooner the New Zealand consumers wake up to this the better it will be for all concerned,” he said.