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| Overview of Meat Standards Australia (MSA) and Cuts Based Grading Scheme |
| R POLKINGHORNE1，J M THOMPSON2，J F HOCQUETTE3，D W PETHICK4 |
| 1.Australia Marrinya Agricultural Enterprises, Victoria 3875, Australia; 2.Cooperative Research Center for Beef Genetic Technologies, University of New England, NSW 2351, Australia; 3. French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA),Clermont-Ferrand 63122, France; 4.Murdoch University, Perth 6150, Australia |
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Abstract Meat Standards Australia (MSA) is a Total Quality Management System aimed at delivering an accurate description of beef eating quality to the consumer. MSA has identified Critical Control Points (CCPs) from the production, pre-slaughter, processing and value adding sectors of the beef supply chain that impact on palatability using large-scale consumer testing. These CCPs have been used to manage beef palatability in two ways. Firstly, CCPs from the pre-slaughter and processing sectors have been used as mandatory criteria for carcasses to be graded. Secondly, other CCPs from the production and processing sectors have been incorporated into a model to predict palatability for individual muscles and cooking techniques.The MSA model can be used to underpin new marketing innovations. There is now good evidence that consumers will pay more for better quality beef. There are several retail examples where pricing is based on the MSA palatability score. This allows the value of the carcass to be calculated by summing the weights of the retail cuts multiplied by the price paid for the different quality grades. Producers are then paid on a proportion of retail value. This system allows the economic weights associated with the different carcass traits to be calculated. As the grades are based on a continuous quality scale, producers in this system are rewarded for small increments in quality and yield traits. The use of MSA in this fashion has underpinned a new and innovative marketing system where the pricing is transparent and allows producers to make informed decisions to modify both quality and yield traits. The MSA system proved to be effective in predicting beef palatability not only in Australia but also in many other countries. In Europe, results of the ProSafeBeef project indicate that it would be possible to manage a grading system in Europe similar to the MSA system.
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| [1] |
. [J]. Meat Research, 1996, 10(3): 10-10. |
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