MSA TO EVALUATE WAGYU CONTENT ON EATING QUALITY DESCRIBING WAGYU'S EATING QUALITY
For the past 30 years, the Australian beef industry has become increasingly aware that Wagyu is special in terms of eating quality. However, much of that knowledge has been accumulated over years from consumer and market demand for the product through premium outlets and markets. There is little underpinning hard science from an Australian perspective, to enable integration of these market characteristics for Wagyu into the national Meat Standards Australia system. Approximately 90% Australian produced Wagyu and crossbred-Wagyu product is sold to highvalue international markets using Marble Score descriptors based on the AUS-MEAT language. AUS-MEAT Marbling Scores are therefore the key recognised parameter for trade of Wagyu. Running parallel to the Australian Wagyu industry has been the development of Meat Standards Australia (MSA), who’s basic aim is to give consumers a quantified value on what the eating quality is for any individual beef meal and to score it accordingly. For a number of reasons, including the unique production and quality attributes of Wagyu, it has not been an easy fit within the MSA model. There are however, plans afoot, to include Wagyu in the MSA model as a strategic initiative to allow MSA to more accurately describe Wagyu eating quality and to account for the higher volumes of crossbred Wagyu product from different female base breeds within the Australian market. A key figure in the MSA system, is Rod Polkinghorne, who was part of the original group to develop the MSA model some twenty years ago.
Ideally, the MSA model could determine if an Angus sirloin for example, with the same marble score as Wagyu would have a different eating quality outcome ...
During MSA’s journey, a number of scientific developments have occurred, led by the MSA Pathways Committee, to ensure that the model is working appropriately and reflecting real-world experiences, such as studying the effects of HGPs and most recently retail packaging on eating quality. However, accounting for the effect of Wagyu for crossbred cattle, has not been one of those studies. “There are two main issues why Wagyu has not been included in the model in the past,” said Rod. “The first is that comparing commercial Wagyu production with another breed is not the same playing field – a Wagyu steer may be fed for 400 days, while other breeds such as Hereford and Angus might only be 50 to 100 days, so it is difficult to scientifically say that traits such as marbling or eating quality differences are due to genetics rather than feed.
“Another issue is that for many years, Wagyu has not had the volume in the breed to give strong statistical analysis, and setting up research projects to directly compare fullblood Wagyu and crossbreds have hit a number of unsurmountable hurdles and fallen through.” 18
THE AUSTRALIAN WAGYU UPDATE - ISSUE 71
