When you’re after an easy meal that doesn’t require too much preparation, a pack of premade beef burgers, some buns and a salad make for a quick dinner that won’t cost a fortune. And judging by the number of different burger patty varieties available at our supermarkets, many of us are choosing this option when we’re short on time and inspiration. 

To help you decide which beef patty deserves its place in your bun, we asked three experts to taste-test 14 different options available from the supermarket to help determine which one wins on flavour.

On this page:

• Top beef patties in our test
• Cheapest burger patties in our test
• Will you get better at the butcher?
• Ingredients in beef patties
• How we test beef patties
• Our expert testers

Top beef patties in our test

Of the 14 beef patties included in our blind taste test, two received a ����Vlog Expert Rating of 70% or more, earning them recommended status.

The most expensive product (per kilogram) in our review – the Coles Finest Coarse Ground Angus Burgers – earned the top score of 77%. The only other patty to be recommended was the Woolworths Chuck & Brisket Quarter Pound Beef Burgers, which scored 70%.

Coles Finest Coarse Ground Angus Burgers

����Vlog Expert Rating: 77%
Price per 300g pack: $9.00
Patties per pack: 2
Price per kg: $30

Experts say:

• “Raw product has a great overall appearance, and it looks nice and natural with evident fat. The cooked product has a very balanced, mild beef flavour.”
• “A nice, juicy product with a pleasant aroma.”

Woolworths Chuck & Brisket Quarter Pound Beef Burgers

����Vlog Expert Rating: 70%
Price per 454g pack: $9
Patties per pack: 4
Price per kg: $19.82

Experts say:

• “Raw product has visible mince strands. Lots of herbs. This looks less processed and more natural. When cooked it has a nice beefy flavour and seasoning is balanced.”

Cheapest burger patties in our test

While price is not always an indicator of performance, in this test there was some correlation. While the most expensive product per kilogram in our test was the top scorer, the cheapest burgers (all frozen varieties) earned the lowest scores. All of these products also contained the lowest percentages of beef.

Coles Simply Beef Patties

����Vlog Expert Rating: 10%
Price per 800g pack: $9.30
Patties per pack: 10
Price per kg: $11.63

Experts say:

• “Raw product is grey. The cooked product has an unbalanced flavour and crumby texture.”
• “Incredibly mushy, no beef flavour and tasted unnatural.”

Woolworths Beef Burgers

����Vlog Expert Rating: 10%
Price per 800g pack: $9.30
Patties per pack: 10
Price per kg: $11.63

Experts say:

• “It is a grey/white colour. So unappealing.”
• “The cooked aroma isn’t nice and it has a very unbalanced flavour.”

Aldi Taste Nation Homestyle Beef Patties

����Vlog Expert Rating: 23%
Price per 750g pack: $8.69
Patties per pack: 6
Price per kg: $11.59

Experts say:

• “Very unappealing raw product, grey in colour and nothing like beef.”
• “Texture is crumbly, flavour is unbalanced.”

While these frozen burger patties didn’t appeal to our judges, they are certainly a cheap alternative to fresh options and you may find it useful to have them in your freezer for emergencies.

Will you get better at the butcher?

If you have a butcher who makes their own beef patties, they may be worth a try. While we didn’t include any butcher’s products in our full comparison of supermarket products (since they didn’t come from a supermarket), we did ask our experts to try one beef patty sourced from an independent butcher. 

Although this product was the most expensive we gave our panel at $33.33/kg, it did earn the highest score (80%) of all the patties sampled. 

Another alternative is to make your own burger. These can be as simple to make as seasoning minced beef with salt and pepper, and shaping your meat into patties that match the shape of your bun. But recipes that include egg, breadcrumbs, Worcestershire sauce, ketchup and an almost infinite number of flavourings abound.

Of course, if you’re short on time or simply don’t feel like doing much preparation, the supermarket or butcher options might be more appealing, even if you know that you can produce a better (or cheaper) result by making it yourself.

Ingredients in beef patties

The fresh patties in our test all contained more than 80% beef. Aldi’s Ready Set Cook Beef Burgers had the lowest percentage (83%) and the Woolworths Steakhouse Quarter Pound Beef Burgers had the highest (99%). 

None of the three frozen products we looked at contained more than 70% beef.

Other ingredients included water, seasonings and firming and binding agents such as flour, psyllium husk and bamboo fibre. 

Some of the patties also included flavourings such as onion, tomato, garlic and a mix of herbs and spices. Antioxidants and preservatives were also present in some of the products we included in our test.

How we test beef patties

Products

We included products labelled as beef patties and excluded any product that included a flavour description (garlic, pepper, or any herbs) or that was described as extra lean.

We chose products that are available nationally through at least one major supermarket chain. 

Tasting

Our experts inspected and tasted the samples blind (without knowing the brands) in a randomised order and rated the patties on flavour, texture, aroma and appearance. 

Scores

The ratings each product received were based on the scores for each aspect of the judging. The results were weighted as follows:

• Flavour: 50%
• Appearance: 15%
• Texture: 20%
• Aroma: 15%

We recommend products with a ����Vlog Expert Rating of 70% or more. 

Our expert testers

Andrew Bligh has more than 25 years’ experience at Bringelly Pork and Bacon, where he is currently the manager. He has served as a judge through the Royal Agricultural Society of NSW (RAS) and holds a Certificate III in Meat Retail. He has also completed advanced training in smallgoods and charcuterie production, food sensory evaluation and food safety. 

Yiota Papanicolaou is a butcher and owner of Dulwich Hill Gourmet Meats in Sydney. The family-owned business has been running since 1984. An expert in smoking and curing meats, Yiota, along with her husband George and children provide award-winning products including traditional and modern charcuterie. 

David Stössel has had a long career in hospitality and has worked closely with leading Australian Chef, Matt Moran, working as general manager at the two-hatted Aria Restaurant Brisbane before moving on to become director of food and dining for Chef Matt Moran and the Solotel Hospitality Group, working across venues including Aria Restaurant, Chiswick Restaurant, and Barangaroo House. He now leads Feather and Bone, Sydney’s leading ethical and sustainable butcher and providore.

The post The best tasting supermarket beef burger patties: Coles, Woolworths, Aldi and more appeared first on ����Vlog.

As voters around the nation converge on primary schools and town halls to exercise their democratic right on 3 May, barbecues around the country will be fired up to feed the voting masses.

We gave candidates from Woolworths, Coles and Aldi a good grilling and then asked ����Vlog staff to elect their favourite democracy sausage.

Which sausage topped the polls in our democracy sausage plebiscite?

Candidate selection

Candidates from the two main parties, Woolworths and Coles, were pre-selected, along with independent candidate Aldi.��

We preferenced plain budget snags as these are the most commonly chosen for a roasting on election day.��

Voting

Registered ����Vlog staff voters were asked to consider each of the candidates’ policies (er, sausages) and cast a conscience vote at our in-office polling place.

Turns out ����Vlog staff are a diligent bunch – there was not a single informal or donkey vote cast (although we did draw the line at postal votes – sausages don’t travel well).

And the winner is…

Woolworths won in a landslide victory, snagging (sorry) an impressive 47.6% of the vote – a clear four-vote majority over Coles, and five votes ahead of Aldi.��

Our last Democracy Sausage election in 2022 saw Coles elected as favourite, so the worm has well and truly turned, with many voters crossing the floor to support Woolies.

Despite unseating its opponents in the Sausage Senate, Woolworths’ snags don’t have much meat to them: just 70% of the total weight. (Though to be fair, Aldi and Coles only managed 71% and 72% respectively.)

But Woolies is the only party campaigning on a platform of traditional values. It sells good old-fashioned beef bangers, while Coles and Aldi use a coalition of beef, lamb and/or chicken, in unspecified ratios.

And while it’s wise to take politicians’ promises with a grain of salt, you won’t need to with the winning wiener – Woolworths sausages had the lowest sodium content of all our candidates. (That means you can have a fair shake of the sauce bottle without worrying about your blood pressure.)

The Opposition

The member for Aldi came in last, taking out less than a quarter of the vote.��

The party is strongly focused on cost of living – its bulk pack sausages were the cheapest in our test at 43.7c each – but at a cost to public health, with its sausages having the highest salt and fat content.

A vote for Coles sausages won’t put your budget back in surplus: it was the most expensive per sausage (47.9c each in a 24 pack), but had the highest percentage of Australian ingredients – good for jobs but not growth.

Got a beef with your supermarket?

If truth in advertising is high on your list of campaign priorities, you could be disappointed.��

While you may expect your Democracy sausage to be made from good old Aussie beef, the fine print reveals what’s really inside.

Woolworths’ sausages are made from traditional beef, but Coles’ and Aldi’s are based on a foundation of three meats: beef, lamb and chicken.��

And they’re not exactly transparent about the ratios of their mystery meat. Here’s how they describe them in their ingredients lists:

• Aldi: Meat (71%) (Beef, lamb or chicken)
• Coles: Australian Meat (72%) [No Added Hormones Beef, RSPCA Approved Chicken, Lamb]

All three parties have a chequered history of using mixed-meat combos, with both Coles and Woolies flip-flopping on the issue between 2019 and 2025.��

Aldi, as usual, has done its own thing and stuck with the three-meat mix, but is now more upfront about the contents of its snags: in 2019, they were described as just “meat” with no further information.

The post Australia votes: The best democracy sausage appeared first on ����Vlog.

On this page:

• Jargon buster
• Which cut?
• How to pick a good steak
• Age matters
• What affects eating quality?
• Cooking the perfect steak

If you shop at a premium butcher instead of a supermarket you’ll be expecting top quality, but this might not always be the case. Knowing what you need and what to look for is a better guarantee of quality than simply paying more at a premium butcher.

Jargon buster

Grain-fed vs grass-fed

All cattle are grass-fed at the beginning of their life cycle (up to two years).

In the final months, grain-fed cattle move onto a feedlot for at least��60 days and are fed��a nutritionally balanced, high-energy, grain-based feed. This feeding regime results in a consistent meat and fat colour, often with high levels of marbling. Certification for grain-fed beef is administered through the National Feedlot Accreditation Scheme and audited by .

Grass-fed (or pasture-fed) cattle are raised on open grazing land with access to water and supplemental feed of mixed grasses. Many experts and steak-lovers say the taste of grass-fed steak is more natural. It’s also the more environmentally friendly option.��

Organic and free range

Organic meat must comply with the National Standard for Organic and Bio-dynamic Produce. All organic beef is grass-fed and will not have been raised on genetically-modified feed, or feed produced with synthetic pesticides. The meat is free from growth-promoting hormones or steroids. Understandably, it is expensive to produce and usually comes at a premium price.

For many years, beef and lamb in Australia were all ‘free range’. No matter how big the operation, the animals roamed free, grazing on the wide open spaces.��These days cows and sheep raised in feedlots are more common. See our article on free range meat labels��for more.

Angus

Angus is a cattle breed developed in Scotland in the late 1700s. Its meat has a smooth, close-grained texture, carnation-red colour and finely marbled fat within the lean muscle.��

Wagyu

Wagyu is a group of cattle breeds from Japan, more likely to be��grain-fed and genetically predisposed to intense marbling (higher fat content).��It also has a higher percentage of the healthier unsaturated fat than any other cattle breed in the world. Considered a luxury food, the best cuts can cost up to $250 per kilo.

Which cut?

Not only will you need to work your way through all the jargon, you’ll have to choose between the different cuts – rump, eye fillet, sirloin, scotch fillet, blade and T-bone (eye fillet on the smaller side of the bone and sirloin on the larger side).

So which cut is best for your cooking method?

** T-bone – Eye fillet on the smaller side of the bone and sirloin on the larger side.

How to pick a good steak

Fine texture and firm to touch

A piece of steak that holds its structure well is ideal. Meat shouldn’t feel slimy and if there is blood it shouldn’t be firm or gelatinous.

Bright cherry-red colour

Vibrant colour indicates freshness. Some meat might appear brown if other items have been resting on it. This is because it hasn’t been able to receive any oxygen. The red colour should come back once it’s exposed to oxygen again. Stay away from meat that has a brownish and/or grey tinge, as these pieces will have a sour taste when cooked.

Marbling

Threads of fat running through the meat increase its juiciness, tenderness and flavor. You don’t always need marbling, you can still get a good piece of meat without it.

Use-by-date

This is very important if you’re buying pre-packaged meat. Meat normally has a use-by-date of about five days if stored correctly.

Moisture

If you’re buying pre-packaged meat you should check that it doesn’t have excessive moisture at the bottom of the package – when cooked it will taste dried-out.

Thickness

Where possible, always buy steak of consistent thickness, as it will cook evenly.

Colour of fat/bone

The fat and bone should be whitish in colour. If it has a brownish colour, you might get a sour taste once it’s cooked. For T-bone steak, freshness can largely be determined by the colour of the bone.

Smell

This is hard to assess if you’re buying pre-packaged meat. Old meat will smell rancid and unpleasant.

MSA certified

Ask the butcher or retailer if the meat is (MSA) certified. If it is, they should be able to give you information about the recommended cooking style.

Age matters

In 2010 beef labelling requirements were introduced that place obligations on retailers when beef is labelled for sale. The aim of this legislation is to help consumers know more about what they’re buying.

Under these requirements beef must be categorised based on age – the youngest cuts warrant a premium price tag while the oldest cuts are the least expensive. They are categorised based on the following descriptions and ages:

• Yearling – 18 months or less
• Young – 18 months or 2.5 years
• Intermediate – 2.5 to 3 years
• Mature – 3 to 3.5 years
• Economy – 3.5 years or more

What affects eating quality?

The overall eating quality of beef is largely out of consumers’ control. The best carcass can be reduced to low-quality, unacceptable meat from the two-week pre-slaughter period right up to the first few hours post-slaughter.

Factors that can affect eating quality include:

Stress

Meat Standards Australia says the damage is mainly caused by changes in the cattle’s energy reserve (muscle glycogen). Feeding increases the energy reserve but stress quickly reduces it. Keeping cattle calm by reducing stress factors before slaughter can keep glycogen levels high.

pH levels

The ideal pH range is between 5.30-5.70. Levels above 5.70 result in dark meat (purple rather than bright red), coarse texture and reduced shelf life. At the point of slaughter, muscle glycogen is converted to lactic acid, which decreases the pH. High energy (glycogen) levels in the cattle pre-slaughter will enable the pH to fall within the ideal range.

Marbling

Threads of fat running through the meat make it tasty and tender. This fat is the last to be deposited but the first to be used by the animal as an energy source, so it takes good nutrition to keep the marbling throughout the meat. Stress and fasting pre-slaughter can rapidly decrease the amount of marbling.

Hormone Growth Promotants (HGPs)

HPGs are supplements of naturally-occurring hormones used by some producers to help cattle meet market weight at an earlier age. They’re placed under the skin on the back of the ear of the cattle, releasing low doses of hormones. In general, marbling is reduced in treated cattle. MSA claims HGPs affect the eating quality of some cuts.

Hanging method during chilling

The carcass can be hung in two ways:

• Traditional method – by the Achilles tendon
• Tenderstretch method – suspended by the pelvis

The tenderstretch method is said to improve eating quality of many cuts of meat like rump and sirloin.

Ageing

After slaughter, muscle fibres break down and become weakened, so meat becomes more tender with age. Beef is generally aged for 14 days (MSA requirements range from five to 35 days), after which time the amount of change is minimal. Aged steak generally has superior flavour and texture, but it also generally comes with a higher price tag.

Cooking methods

Muscles are made up of fibre groups surrounded and supported by connective tissue. The amount of connective tissue in a piece of meat is related to the amount and type of work that particular muscle has to do, which is why certain cuts of meat are more tender than others. Blade muscles, for example, are constantly used and so have high connective tissue content. This type of meat is best for casseroles, as the slow cooking process helps to break down the connective tissue. By contrast, a muscle such as the fillet (tenderloin) does very little work with almost no connective tissue, resulting in a very tender piece of meat. In a casserole, the fillet’s structure would be completely broken down, so it is best suited to pan-frying or grilling.

Cooking the perfect steak

Once you’ve chosen your perfect piece of steak, here’s how to cook it to perfection:

• Pre-heat your frypan/griddle/barbecue for 3-5 minutes
• Sprinkle salt and olive oil over the meat
• Sear the meat on each side for about three minutes, depending on the thickness of the steak (if you continually turn it over it will dry out)
• Don’t pierce the steak with a fork or knife as this will let the juices escape
• Cook to your liking (see below) then remove the steak and rest it for approximately three minutes
• Enjoy!

How do I judge if the steak is cooked to my liking?

It’s all about feel. Once you get the hang of it you should be able to get it right every time. Use our guide:

Rare:��Hold one hand up loosely and with the other hand press the ball of your thumb (this is the fleshy part of your hand directly under your thumb). This should give you the feeling of a rare steak.

Medium:��Bring your index finger to your thumb and make a circle. Using your other hand, press the ball of your thumb to get the feeling of a steak that’s medium done.

Well done:��Bring your middle finger to your thumb to make a circle, using your other hand press the ball of your thumb to get the feeling of a well done steak.

The post Your guide to buying the best steak appeared first on ����Vlog.

On this page:

• Protein content
• Mince, chunks, gristle and bone
• 25% meat
• Offal
• Guess the animal
• Homemade meat pies

We may love our national snack, but ask most Aussies what’s in their meat pie and chances are they’ll have some pretty gruesome theories about the origins of that delicious brown-flavoured gloop.

In 2010 ����Vlog tested most of the national brands stocked in the frozen section of the supermarket, including , , , Snowy River, and��.

Our 2010 test analysed 20 meat pies for their meat content and nutrition labelling, as well as examining the meat contents for gristle.

We sent the pies to an external laboratory where three samples of each pie were tested and the results averaged. This test determined if the pies met the requirements of the��Food Standards code for meat pies.

Protein content

There’s no lab test available that specifically looks for “meat”. What can be measured is protein. The meat content (as a percentage of the whole pie, not just of the filling) is calculated from this number.

As long as it’s declared on the label, manufacturers can also use soy protein in the filling. But lab analysis doesn’t distinguish between protein from meat and protein from vegetable sources. In our test, we measured levels of soy protein in the filling and found that most pies only had trace amounts.

Mince, chunks, gristle and bone

The meat in most of the pies was mainly mince, which made it almost impossible to determine exactly what parts of the animal were used. Of the pies that claimed to have chunks of meat, our tester found that there weren’t many chunks, and the filling in most was basically just the same consistency as the minced meat in other brands.

Gristle was detected in all the pies, but only in relatively small amounts. The only standout concern was a splinter of bone found in a Black & Gold pie.

25% meat

Between our 2006 and 2010 reviews, Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) improved the definition of a meat pie. Previously, a meat pie had to contain 25% ‘meat’, but that could include parts of the animal like snouts, ears, tongue roots, tendons and blood vessels.

Under the current Code, a meat pie must contain a minimum of 25% “meat flesh”. Meat flesh includes the skeletal muscle of any slaughtered animal as well as any attached animal rind, fat, connective tissue, nerve, blood and blood vessels. While pretty poor eating, the code still allows this kind of gristle to be labelled as meat.

In our 2010 test, , Sargents Premium Chunky Beef Royale and Pepper Steak Chunky pies barely made the minimum requirement, all containing just over 25% meat as required by the Food Standards Code. In our 2006 test, Extra Tasty, Sargents Traditional and Black & Gold pies failed to meet the standard. We were happy to see these manufacturers had lifted their game to meet the 25% requirement in our 2010 test.

Offal

When it comes to using offal, like brain, heart, kidney, liver, tongue or tripe, these must be declared on the pie’s ingredients label. Our last report didn’t find any offal in the pies tested.

Guess the animal

The meat in your “meat pie” doesn’t have to be beef. Muscle meat from buffalo, camel, cattle, deer, goat, hare, pig, poultry or sheep can be used to manufacture meat pies, and the type of animal doesn’t need to be specified on the label.

Homemade meat pies

Never buying a meat pie again after reading this report? You could always DIY your next pie, that way you know exactly what animal – and what parts of that animal – you’re eating.

Ingredients (makes 12 single-serve pies)

• 1 tablespoon (tbsp) olive oil
• 1 large brown onion, finely chopped��
• 1 clove garlic
• 1kg lean beef mince
• 1 bay leaf
• 600ml beef stock
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• ¼ cup red wine (optional)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tbsp fresh thyme
• 3 tbsp cornflour, made into a paste with cold water
• 4 sheets frozen, ready-rolled 25% reduced-fat shortcrust pastry, thawed
• 3 sheets frozen, 25% reduced-fat puff pastry, thawed
• 1 egg, beaten

Method

1. Preheat oven to 220°C, using the top and bottom element as well as the fan.
2. Grease 12 pie pans (8cm x 11cm diameter) or a 12-cup large muffin pan.
3. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic. Cook for three minutes or until soft.
4. Add mince and cook until browned.
5. Add bay leaf, stock, tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, red wine, salt and pepper and thyme. Bring to the boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 1 hour with the lid on.
6. Pour cornflour paste into meat mixture, stir until mixture thickens, remove from heat and cool.
7. For the base, cut out shortcrust pastry to the desired shape of the baking dish (cut out pastry 3cm larger in diameter than the pie pan diameter for the overhang). Press into pie pan. Fill with 3 tablespoons of mince. Brush rims with egg.
8. Cut pastry top from the puff pastry (use the diameter of the pie pans to cut around). Place over meat. Press to seal. Trim. Brush with egg.
9. Place pies onto hot tray. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the pastry is golden.

Our recipe has less sodium than the pies we analysed, providing you make your own stock. But it doesn’t fare any better for total and saturated fats. Keep in mind that most of the fat is in the pastry, so you can lower the amount by making your own pie cases.

Once the filling is made, you can either freeze the left-over meat or make up the pies and freeze them uncooked, so they’re ready to bake later.

The post What’s in your meat pie? appeared first on ����Vlog.

On this page:

• Understanding the welfare labels – or not
• Chicken
• Chicken brands to look out for
• Pork
• Pork brands to look out for
• Ethical options for meat eaters
• Links to the welfare standards

Australians love meat – per capita we’re one of the biggest meat-consuming nations in the world.

But our meats of choice are changing. Australians ‘get more pork on the fork’ these days, eating over 20kg per person in 2016, up from 14.4kg in 1991. And poultry consumption has gone through the roof from 22kg per person annually in 1991 to a whopping 43 kg per person in 2016.

Meanwhile, our love of lamb has waned, from 19.3kg per person in 1991 to just 7.7kg in 2016.

In Australia, traditionally, beef and lamb range on pastures, allowing for a more ‘natural’ existence. However, more recently there’s been a shift to fattening them up on pure grain diets in feedlots.

All pork and poultry meat stocked in supermarkets is produced intensively in indoor ‘factory farms’ unless creditably labelled otherwise. These methods bring the prices down – the price per kilo of chicken dropped by 40% from 1988 to 2010. But the welfare of the animals can also plunge.

There’s no legal definition of ‘free range’ when it comes to meat in Australia, so it’s not easy to know what to make of all the welfare labels when considering the trays of meat in the supermarket fridges.

Understanding the welfare labels – or not

“Most people would be horrified to see what a free range chicken is,” says Grant Hilliard, who specialises in sourcing pasture-raised animals from sustainable farmers for his Sydney butchery, Feather and Bone.

Despite what the packaging may imply, some free range standards allow for the chickens to be confined in sheds until they’re fully feathered, packed in at stocking densities of up to 15 birds per square metre under almost unrestricted artificial lighting.

Hilliard says the labels are confusing. “It’s deliberately designed to obfuscate. There is no attempt from a government level to make this stuff easy to understand.”

Consumers seem to be left to navigate their way through various claims and logos with little clear information about what means what. In this article we take a look at the standards for a number of the more common welfare labels that appear in the supermarket for chicken, pork, beef and lamb products, with an emphasis on free range.

While this is by no means an exhaustive review or comparison of all the standards available, we have given a breakdown of what some of these more common labels really mean when it comes to animal welfare.

Chicken

The industry standard

The Model Code of Practice, the ‘conventional’ industry standard sets out minimum allowable welfare conditions, which don’t specify free range. Birds can be raised indoors for their whole lives, at up to 20 birds per square metre, often in the tens of thousands. Continuous artificial lighting can be used for 23 out of 24 hours (to encourage eating and growth).

These are some of the options that go above this standard.

Chicken brands to look out for

Australian Certified Organic (ACO)

Australian Certified Organic is one of six government-approved organic certifying bodies.

ACO mandates that chickens always have access to the outdoors during daylight hours, no matter what their age.

ACO caps outdoor stocking rates at 2500 to 4800 birds per hectare (the range depends on whether paddock rotation is used). In the shed, chickens can be stocked at 12 birds per square metre, and artificial lighting is capped at 16 hours per day, with at least eight hours of continuous dark per night.

Brands

Inglewood organic chicken, Woolworths Macro organic chicken.

Humane Choice and PROOF

Humane Choice and PROOF accredited brands offer higher welfare conditions than RSPCA Approved and FREPA, and are often as good as the ACO standard. Unfortunately they’re not always found in major supermarkets. One big difference is that Humane Choice only stipulates that birds be given access to the outdoors after 21 days, but stocking densities and artificial lighting standards are the same as the ACO standards. (At the time of writing, PROOF is awaiting assessment by the ACCC for its application for Certification Trade Mark.)

FREPA

FREPA accredited free range chickens are only let outdoors when they’re ‘fully feathered’. There’s no cap on the amount of chickens per metre in the outdoors, and in the shed they are stocked at up to 15 birds per square metre. There is also no specified limit on the amount of artificial light used.

Brands��

Woolworths Macro Free Range, Lilydale, Aldi’s Willowton Free Range.

RSPCA Approved is not free range

RSPCA Approved doesn’t necessarily mean free range. This standard allows meat chickens to be raised intensively in sheds with stocking densities of up to 17 birds per square metre, and up to 20 hours per day of artificial lighting, bright enough to encourage foraging and activity. These conditions don’t compare well with the other standards we looked at.

However, Hope Bertram, RSPCA Australia’s Human Food Marketing Manager, told ����Vlog: “The most important thing to understand is that free range doesn’t necessarily equal good welfare. A poorly run free-range system can be bad for welfare; likewise, a well-run indoor system can give the animals everything they need.”

In better news for RSPCA Approved chooks, producers are required to meet standards for the provision and quality of the litter inside the sheds to avoid skin burns from ammonia build up.

The RSPCA standard also requires perches and hay bales to encourage chickens to be active and build muscle strength. While this is an improvement on the Model Code of Practice conditions, it stipulates only 2.7 metres of perching per 1000 birds ­– that’s a big squeeze.

Brands

Freedom Farms, Woolworths Brand RSPCA Approved chicken, Coles Brand RSPCA Approved chicken, Romeo’s Brand Chicken, Hazeldene’s Chicken, Nichols Poultry, Game Farm (spatchcock)

Confusingly for shoppers, the RSPCA Approved label for animals raised outdoors is the same as that for animals raised in sheds. So if you’re looking for free range meat, this isn’t the label to choose.

The outdoor standard includes stipulations about providing edible vegetation and adequate protection. But the maximum outdoor stocking rate is the same as the indoor one – 17 birds per square metre.

RSPCA Approved ‘Outdoor’ chickens are allowed outdoor access once they’re “reasonably feathered” or 28 days old. The RSPCA says this is for welfare reasons – “Birds are indoors until they’re fully feathered for their own protection from the elements” – but since they’re slaughtered between five and seven weeks old, they’ll still spend the bulk of their lives in the shed.

Brands

Mt Barker Free Range Chicken

Pork

Pigs in conventional indoor piggeries have a crowded life in group pens – the minimum floor area for a 100-kilogram pig is only .66m2, under the model Code for Pigs. The same size grower pig in an RSPCA Approved operation has 1.03m2.

Controversial sow stalls are still used by some producers for pregnant sows. Designed to prevent aggression between pigs, they are restrictive metal cages the length and width of the sow which don’t allow her to turn around.

Until recently the sows could spend their whole 115-day pregnancy in a sow stall. In July 2017, the industry’s Model Code of Practice for Animal Welfare:Pigs imposed restrictions meaning that sows can only be confined in these for up to six weeks of their pregnancy. Some producers are going further than this and certifying as “Gestation Stall Free”, meaning sows must not be confined for any longer than five days after mating.

Less well known is that sows are routinely moved to narrow steel farrowing (or gestation) crates to have the piglets, which separate them from their young by a metal bar. Farrowing crates are designed to protect piglets from being crushed by their mother, but they’re considered inhumane by some because sows are confined in these for up to four weeks, only able to stand up and lie down on metal floors.

Hilliard argues that the Sow Stall Free label is misleading. “What most consumers don’t understand is that doesn’t mean the sow isn’t constrained to a farrowing crate prior to and after birth for weeks.”

For instance, Coles Brand fresh pork has been sow stall free since 2014 – but farrowing crates are allowed.

Comparing the labels

Unless they’re creditably labelled as free range, all Australian pork products in Aldi and Woolworths have been bred and raised in sheds, likely with the use of farrowing crates and possibly sow stalls.

The label ‘Outdoor Bred: Raised Indoors on Straw’ means the adult breeding pigs live outdoors with shelters, and the piglets are bred outdoors. But after three weeks, or weaning, they’re moved indoors to group housing in sheds with straw bedding, and kept there until slaughter.

RSPCA Approved bred free range pigs are brought indoors after weaning but kept in large open sheds with straw.

Free range pork labels

If you want your pork to have been born and raised outdoors (for their whole life) avoid ‘bred free range’ and ‘outdoor bred’ labels and instead look for products with one of these labels:

• Humane Choice
• Australian Certified organic
• Australian Pork Certified Free Range
• PROOF – Pasture Raised On Open Fields

Pigs raised under the Australian Certified Organic (ACO) standard are the most likely to have been raised free range with high welfare conditions. Unfortunately, certified organic pork is not listed as available from Coles or Woolworths on their online shopping sites, and isn’t available at Aldi.

And if you’re looking to buy Humane Choice or PROOF accredited meat, at the time of publishing we couldn’t find any on sale at Aldi, Coles or Woolworths.��(At the time of writing, PROOF is awaiting assessment by the ACCC for its application for Certification Trade Mark.)

RSPCA Approved does not guarantee ‘free range’

RSPCA Standards don’t require pigs to have access to an outdoor or range area, but where they do have access, there are additional ‘outdoor’ standards. Yet the logo you’ll see on packages in store is the same for either standard so it’s not possible to work out if the animal was raised free range from this label.

RSPCA Approved ‘outdoor’ system standards allow for piglets to be moved to sheds after weaning with ‘access to outdoors’.

At the time of writing the RSPCA told ����Vlog that all the pig farms that are currently in the RSPCA Approved Farming Scheme are raised to the RSPCA outdoor standards.

Pork brands to look out for

Woolworths Macro Free Range Pork, Coles Free Range pork and Cleaver’s Certified Free Range are Australian Pork Certified Free Range. According to the standards, these pigs live outdoors always, with no use of indoor sheds, sow stalls or farrowing crates.

Beef and lamb from feedlots

Feedlots, where lambs and cattle can be fattened before slaughter, are environments in which they are confined in often dusty, hot conditions in large numbers in yards, and fed a diet of pure grain. People object to them because animals can suffer from heat stress, flies, the accumulation of manure and conditions such as bovine respiratory disease.

How to avoid meat from feedlots

• Marbled Wagyu beef production generally incorporates feedlotting.
• Feedlots are ruled out for certified organic lamb and beef, and certified grass-fed beef under the Pasturefed Cattle Assurance Scheme (PCAS).
• Woolworths’ ‘grass fed’ range is PCAS-certified not to use feedlots, but Aldi’s grass-fed range isn’t. Aldi has said it will allow grain supplements when weather conditions require this.

Can’t find what you want in the supermarkets?

If the shelves are bare of the cuts you’re seeking, let the retailer know, and try ordering online. Sometimes supermarkets stock more certified organic and free range cuts online.��

Seek out butchers that specialise in providing higher welfare meats where the provenance is known and verified. Ask about where the animal came from and if the butcher knows the farm or producer. The butcher who specialises in this field should be able to explain how the animal was raised differently to conventional conditions. Be wary of false claims of ‘free range’ that cannot be verified.

Ethical options for meat eaters

• Avoid factory farmed chicken and pork products.
• Avoid animals finished in feedlots.
• Choose certified organic, PROOF or Humane Choice accredited labels.
• Choose quality over quantity – consider weekly ‘meat free’ days, or restrict meat to special occasions.
• Eat secondary or less popular cuts to make use of the whole animal and reduce waste.

Links to the welfare standards

The post Ethical meat appeared first on ����Vlog.

On this page:

• Farm-free
• Health kick
• Treading lightly
• Sustainable Skippy
• Keeping it clean
• What about welfare?
• RSPCA wants review

And it’s not just Australians that are becoming partial to it – kangaroo meat is now regularly exported to over 40 countries worldwide, with the industry saying it’s worth an estimated $150 million annually.

But it seems not everyone has been won over. Surveys on consumer attitudes to kangaroo meat have found just over half of Australians have ever tried it, and many people object to eating it due to concerns about hygiene, animal welfare, or because they think it’s unhealthy.��

So are people right to be wary of kangaroo meat? Or does it live up to the healthy and environmentally friendly image the industry portrays?

Farm-free

Many people think kangaroos are farmed for their meat, but all the kangaroo meat on supermarket shelves and served up in restaurants comes from kangaroos harvested from wild populations.

Four species are commonly harvested – red kangaroos, eastern and western grey kangaroos, and the common wallaroo. Harvesting is regulated in each state by the relevant government authority, and management plans for the harvest must also be approved by the federal government.

According to the Department of Environment, the commercial kangaroo harvest is “one of the world’s best practice wild harvest operations, with management goals based firmly on principles of sustainability”.

Health kick

According to Professor Kerin O’Dea, an expert in nutrition at the University of South Australia, there’s no reason to doubt kangaroo being a healthy red meat. “It is very lean, a good source of protein and a very good source of iron and zinc,” she says.

One of the healthiest properties of kangaroo meat is its low fat content, coming in at less than 2%. “There is no visible fat on kangaroo meat, and the fat it does have is mostly polyunsaturated. Lamb and beef, on the other hand, are much higher in visible and saturated fat,” O’Dea says.

But before you go loading up on kangaroo, be aware it hasn’t received a completely clean bill of health. In 2013, researchers found that L-carnitine, a compound found in all red meat but which is highest in kangaroo, was associated with the build-up of arterial plaque, which may lead to cardiovascular disease, heart attacks and strokes.

As with all red meat, O’Dea says kangaroo meat should be consumed in moderation. Current recommend a maximum of 455 grams of lean red meat per week.

Treading lightly

Want to reduce your carbon footprint without giving up red meat? Kangaroo could be your answer.

Cows and sheep belch out large amounts of methane, a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Kangaroos, on the other hand, produce very little of it. So switching to kangaroo can help ease your carbon-conscience.

Kangaroos also have less impact on the land compared to cattle and sheep, according to Dr Rosie Cooney from the University of NSW��“Kangaroos have a much lower environmental impact in terms of water used,” she says. “Cattle and sheep also have hard hooves, which causes land degradation and increases soil erosion.”

But the environmental benefits of eating kangaroo only apply if you substitute it for the beef or lamb you already consume. Tacking it on to your existing red meat consumption is of little benefit.

Sustainable Skippy

If you’re worried eating one half of our coat-of-arms will cause kangaroo numbers to plummet, Cooney says there’s little to worry about. “There are now several decades of data showing that harvesting kangaroos has little impact on their overall numbers.”

A maximum quota of 15–20% of the kangaroo population can be harvested in any year, but usually much less than that is taken. And population surveys are conducted regularly to keep an eye on kangaroo numbers.

But being sustainable doesn’t mean we can all just start tucking into kangaroo – there simply aren’t enough of them to go around. If every Australian had just one serve of kangaroo per week, then it’s estimated we’d need more than ten times the number of kangaroos.

Keeping it clean

Given they’re harvested in the wild and not in sanitised abattoirs, just how safe is kangaroo meat to eat?

In 2012, animal rights groups and caused a stir when they found salmonella and Escherichia coli (or E. coli), both of which can cause food poisoning, on kangaroo meat taken from supermarket shelves. And in 2009, Russia banned imports of kangaroo meat, reportedly due to high levels of bacteria.

But Professor Michael Archer from the University of New South Wales says finding disease-causing bacteria on any red meat is not uncommon. He says there have been peer-reviewed, scientific studies showing levels of bacteria on kangaroo meat are comparable to or lower than that found on other red meats.

And according to a spokesperson from , the federal government’s watchdog on foodborne disease outbreaks, there have been no confirmed reports of food poisoning resulting from the consumption of commercially harvested kangaroo meat in the 15 years OzFoodNet has been running.

When we approached the , their spokesperson also reported a clean record in that state, telling us “Kangaroo is widely regarded as a safe and healthy meat.”

What about welfare?

Several animal welfare organisations, including Voiceless, and Animal Liberation, have campaigned against the kangaroo harvest, saying it’s a cruel process that should be stopped. And they have recently gained support from the Centre for Compassionate Conservation (CFCC)��at the University of Technology, Sydney.

“From an ethical perspective, we should demand that any animal we kill for our own consumption is killed humanely, and we need to be able to guarantee it,” says Dr Daniel Ramp, director of the CFCC.

So are kangaroos being harvested inhumanely?

Kangaroo harvesters must follow a code of practice that specifies all kangaroos be killed instantaneously by a single bullet to the head from a high-powered rifle. It sounds harsh, but as Dr Bidda Jones, chief scientist from RSPCA Australia��told ����Vlog, “a shot to the head that destroys the brain is one of the most humane methods of killing an animal”.

According to Ramp, however, with very little monitoring of the harvest taking place, it’s hard to know whether the code of practice is being followed or not. “The shootings are occurring at night, in the bush, by a lone shooter. Even the best shot is going to miss a kangaroo head hopping away, even at 30 or 40 metres.”

Ramp says an even bigger issue is the problem of orphaned joeys. When a female kangaroo is shot, the code states the young in her pouch or any young by her side must also be killed – the reasoning being that without their mother, any young will most likely starve and die.

“Most shooters find complying with this very difficult and leave the dependent young to fend for themselves,” says Ramp. “That’s a lot of animals that are not dying humanely.”

But John Kelly, executive officer of the Kangaroo Industry Association of Australia (), says the welfare issues surrounding kangaroo harvesting have been overstated.

With regards to joeys, Kelly says the KIAA, the industry body representing the majority of harvesters, has a policy of taking only male kangaroos to reduce the number of joeys orphaned and killed. Kelly says male kangaroos now account for more than 90% of the national harvest – up from 70% in previous years. Some of the big suppliers of kangaroo meat, including Macro Meats��and Aussie Game meets, state their male-only policies on their websites.

As for concerns about the harvesters’ capabilities, Kelly points to a 2014 study of kangaroo harvesting in NSW which found a 97% success rate in achieving an instantaneous death. Kelly says this shows that, far from being the cowboys they are portrayed as, kangaroo harvesters are professional marksmen with an “extraordinarily high level of competency”.

Weighing it up

There are ethical considerations for anything we consume, and kangaroo meat is no exception. But do the health and eco benefits of eating kangaroo outweigh the welfare concerns?

The answer to that question obviously comes down to personal ideals. But Kelly says if you’re already eating red meat, then you need to consider the welfare issues surrounding lamb and beef.

“Kangaroo harvesting is probably the most humane way there is of producing red meat,” he says. “They are harvested in their natural environment and they are not put under stress by man in any way. They’re not mulesed, ear-tagged, tail-docked, or branded. They’re not mustered, or deprived of food and water, and they’re not trucked to slaughter.”

RSPCA wants review

The code of practice covering the commercial kangaroo harvest was due for review in 2013. Dr Bidda Jones from RSPCA Australia told ����Vlog the RSPCA has formally requested that the federal government review the code. “This does not mean the RSPCA supports all kangaroo shooting, but we are working to make sure that the methods used reflect the most recent science,” she says.

Some of the items the RSPCA would like to see incorporated into a revised code include an operating procedure outlining the most humane way to euthanase joeys, as well as a standardised competency test for shooters. Jones says the RSPCA is also concerned about how the move to a male-only harvest is impacting on kangaroo populations.

The post The ethics of eating kangaroo meat appeared first on ����Vlog.

On this page:

• Behavioural issues
• Looking beyond 'free range'
• Industry certification systems
• Certification certainty?
• Legalised cruelty?
• Chook myths

Shoppers are prepared to pay a premium for free-range chicken meat because they believe that the animals have enjoyed higher welfare conditions than conventionally farmed chickens. However, the only definition of ‘free range’ set out in the code of practice for raising poultry is that the chickens are given “access to an outdoor range and to indoor shelter”.

“The lack of a legally binding definition of ‘free range’ means that some chickens which are essentially factory-farmed are being sold as higher welfare,” says Lisa Chalk from .

While consumers may like the idea of chickens frolicking outdoors, the reality can be quite different. Just because free-range chickens technically have access to the outdoors, doesn’t mean they actually go outside.

According to Chalk, most chickens don’t go outside before they are fully feathered (around 21 days old), and meat chickens generally begin to be harvested when they reach slaughter weight (from about 35 days old). “This means that, contrary to public perception, some chickens might only spend at most 14 days outside,” Chalk says.

Behavioural issues

The other issue is that the maximum stocking density inside sheds for meat chickens, whether free range or not, is 40kg of birds per square metre, which is about 20 birds at a harvestable weight of two kilograms each. Chalk says this level of density can prevent chickens moving through the throng of birds to get to the openings in the shed wall.

“Even though chickens may have access to outdoors, being timid animals, they might not go out if there isn’t enough shade or shelter or there’s no protection from overhead predators,” adds Meg Parkinson from the Free Range Egg and Poultry Association ().

And even if the birds don’t go out of the sheds��–��because the outside area is unappealing, or they can’t get there because the shed is too crowded –��the meat can still be considered to be free range.

“That’s why it’s important to choose certified free-range products,” says Parkinson. “Lower stocking densities mean it’s easier for birds to move around and access the outdoors, and have enough space to be comfortable indoors when bad weather means they can’t go outside. Certification also means that farms are subject to third-party audits so shoppers know that certification standards are being upheld.”

Looking beyond ‘free range’

While consumers are attracted to the idea of outside access for chickens, the says that going outside is not actually the most important welfare issue when raising meat chickens.

Rather than focusing just on the access to outdoors, the RSPCA says consumers should be looking at brands that offer overall higher welfare farming conditions.

Elise Meakin, communications and campaigns manager for RSPCA Australia, says that, if managed properly, higher welfare can be achieved in an ‘indoor system’, even without access to the outdoors. To achieve this, farmers have to commit to creating an environment where the birds are encouraged to be active and to express their natural behaviours.

“This can be done by providing environmental enrichment such as pecking objects, perches and sufficient space to move freely, along with bedding in which to dust-bathe and a dark period that’s long enough so they can rest properly,” Meakin says.

Industry certification systems

There are three main chicken meat accreditation systems on the market: FREPA, Australian Certified Organic () producers, and the RSPCA’s Approved Farming .

There is currently one brand, Mt Barker, which offers free-range chicken that is RSPCA Approved, with all the other RSPCA Farming Scheme Approved chicken meat being ‘indoor’ raised.

Each of the accreditation systems set out a code of practice that aims to have higher welfare standards than the basic conditions provided by conventional farms.

Certification certainty?

Although certified free-range and higher welfare products may offer comfort to consumers, it’s not easy for shoppers to compare systems; basic information, such as stocking densities, is not generally written on packaging, and people have to do their own comparative research on certification websites. Even then, not all the information – such as how often farms are audited – is mentioned.

Are farmers complying with the certification systems?

“The rise of free range is an industry-led response to consumer concern about animal welfare,” says Professor Heather Yeatman, from the School of Health and Society at the University of Wollongong. “But there is little transparency around self-regulated industry standards – for example, how are the free-range farms monitored, what action is taken if a breach of standards occurs, and is this breach publicly declared?”

“When it comes to the validity and transparency of certification systems which claim higher-welfare conditions, the only thing consumers can do is put pressure on industry to declare their monitoring and audit reporting so the public can have some confidence in the system,” Yeatman says.

There are also issues outside of the certification systems, where producers might use marketing claims on their products that can be misleading if used inappropriately. For example, you might see claims such as ‘free to roam’ and ‘range reared’ on chicken meat labels, but there is no standard definition within the industry of what these terms mean.

There have been several prosecutions in the egg and poultry meat industries, and in 2014 the ACCC declared that it was prioritising clamping down on misleading claims relating to food products.

“Given the significant differences in the welfare of animals in different farming systems, the RSPCA believes there should be a nationally consistent approach to the labelling of welfare-oriented animal products so consumers have reliable information on how the animal was raised,” says Meakin.

Legalised cruelty?

The Model Code of Practice for the Welfare of Animals is a series of guidelines outlining the minimum welfare requirements for livestock such as cattle, sheep and poultry. Lisa Chalk from Animals Australia says some of the practices that are permitted in the guidelines would be shocking to many people if they knew about them.

“Animals raised for food are denied the legal protections we give to dogs and cats – farmers are allowed to perform surgical procedures like beak trimming or tail cutting without anaesthetics, and [to keep] animals in conditions so cramped they can’t move around – if you did that to a pet dog and cat you would be charged.”

Chalk says the level of scrutiny varies between states, but there are no compulsory inspections of farms and the only time authorities usually check is when there is evidence of cruelty.

With regards to chickens grown for meat, there are several welfare issues associated with the way the chickens have been selectively bred to grow rapidly and reach slaughter weight in a matter of weeks. For example, rapid growth can cause leg weakness and this, combined with overcrowding, can lead to a lack of mobility and increases the incidence of lameness, skin diseases and the ability to access food and water. Chickens may also die from heat stress caused by poor ventilation or cramped conditions.

Other welfare issues include birds’ inability to express natural behaviours such as scratching, foraging and dust bathing, and lack of access to perches. It’s also permitted for chickens to be kept under continuous lighting for 23 hours a day.

Chook myths

‘Cage free’: Meat chickens have never been kept in cages.

Growth hormones: Chickens have not been given growth hormones since the 1960s.

Beak trimming: Beak trimming is routinely performed on egg-laying hens, but meat chickens are less aggressive towards each other and so aren’t subject to this practice.

Antibiotics: Antibiotics are not used to promote or enhance a chicken’s growth, but they can be used as a preventative measure against bacterial infection or disease.

The post The many meanings of ‘free range’ chicken appeared first on ����Vlog.

On this page:

• Meat, fat and fillers
• Additives
• Casings
• The lowdown on labelling
• Quality check
• Fat brings the flavour
• Price
• Is there a healthy sausage?
• Sausage police
• The snag with organic sausages

Meat, fat and fillers

”A traditional sausage is meat, fat and seasoning in a natural casing which is made from intestines,” says Romeo Baudouin, head chef at Victor Churchill butchers in Woollahra, Sydney. ”The use of cereal fillers is a British custom stemming from the first and second World Wars, when meat shortages led to breadcrumbs and flour being added. That practice continues today as people got used to the taste – it also requires less meat, making them cheaper to produce.”

As well as meat and fat, high on the ingredients list you’ll see fillers or binders such as rice, flour, maize, hydrolysed vegetable protein, potato and tapioca starch, and rusk (wheat). A little water is required to bind the meat and fillers, but more might be used to add bulk to mass-produced sausages which are sold by weight.

Additives

We found a variety of intriguing additives on ingredients lists that add flavour and colour while keeping costs down for manufacturers. These included sugar, spray-dried wine, HVP preservative, yeast extract, natural roast beef flavour and smoke flavour. Most mass-produced or butcher-made sausages use preservatives to inhibit bacteria growth and delay the grey-brown oxidisation of meat. Sulphur dioxide (220), sodium and potassium sulphites (221-225 and 228) are permitted in sausages at a limit of 500mg per kilogram, but could cause problems for people who are sensitive to sulphites. There are no regulations limiting the level of sodium in sausages and, although offal is allowed, it must be declared in the ingredients list or to consumers at the butchers.

Casings

There are two types of sausage casings. Natural casings are made from animal intestines, and collagen casings are made from industrially-processed protein, usually made from beef or pig hides. These artificial casings are cheaper and come in convenient, uniform sizes.

The lowdown on labelling

Food Standards Australia New Zealand ()��specifies that fat-free meat flesh must make up at least half the total weight of the sausage, and that the fat content should be no more than half the weight of the fat-free meat flesh. Fat-free meat flesh is broadly defined as ”the skeletal muscle of any slaughtered animal, which can include any attached animal rind, fat and connective nerve, blood, blood vessels and, in the case of poultry, the skin”. If the label specifies a particular type of meat, such as beef, the regulations say it should contain beef.

Mmm, fat-free meat flesh

We discovered that working out the ”fat-free meat flesh” content of a sausage is not so simple. It took several emails and phone calls to various authorities to establish that when an ingredients list says pork (70%) it refers to the combined��total of fat-free meat flesh and fat.

For example, in order to work out the lean meat content of Welsh Dragon sausages, you’d firstly have to look at whether there is any other ingredient containing fat in the ingredients list. If not, you take the total fat per 100g in the nutrition panel – in this case it’s 19g fat – and subtract that from the 70g/100g (70%) pork, to discover there is only 51% of fat-free lean meat in the sausage.

The definition of ‘meat’

If you see ”meat” in the ingredients list, the product may contain ”the whole or part of the carcass of any buffalo, camel, cattle, deer, goat, hare, pig, poultry, rabbit or sheep, slaughtered other than in a wild state”. Butchers are exempt from��labelling requirements��if products are sold unpackaged, but they’re obliged to supply that information if asked, and must indicate when a food contains added sulphites in concentrations of 10mg/kg or more.

The offal truth

For consumers concerned about undisclosed offal; despite the usual myths about eyes and innards, your sausage is most likely offal-free. One meat industry insider pointed out that offal fetches good prices in overseas markets, so it’s not cost-effective to waste it in sausages here in Australia. And, in any case, offal is generally stripped out of the carcass before it’s delivered to butchers.

Quality check

”To pick a quality sausage you should be able to see the mixture of lean meat and fat through the casing. It should look appetising and the skin should be plump and dry, not damp or slimy,” says Baudouin. “A natural casing will not be shiny, and you should barely be able to see it. When you cook it, the skin shouldn’t shrink and peel away. The casing should be married to the meat and keep the sausage moist.”

Fat brings the flavour

”Fat is essential for a tasty sausage,” says Baudouin. ”Around 20% fat is about right.”

George Papanicolaou, from Dulwich Hill Gourmet Meats in Sydney, agrees. “Don’t be scared of a little fat in the pan when you cook the sausage. A sausage that releases no fat when you cook it can mean it has too many binders, and this can mean all the fat is held in the sausage. The more fat in your pan, the less fat you end up eating.” Don’t pierce a sausage in the pan, as all the juices and flavour will leak out, and always cook over a medium heat or the sausage skin may split.

We cooked six varieties of beef sausages and measured the fat left in the pan. The gourmet, independent butcher and organic snags left up to 30ml of fat in the pan (from eight sausages), while the supermarket varieties released so little fat they were hard to cook.

Price

Price can be an indication of quality. Breakfast sausages are often cheaper because they’re made with lower-quality cuts of meat, or a combination of different meat off-cuts. Finely ground, dense sausages could also be hiding poor-quality meat, an excess of binders, or��more water than is necessary.

Is there a healthy sausage?

Sausages are not a health food. Due to the link between processed meat, red meat and colorectal cancer, the����advises limiting or avoiding processed meats such as sausages, frankfurts, salami, bacon and ham.

”The high fat and salt levels mean sausages should only be eaten sometimes – about once a fortnight is appropriate,” says Pip Golley, spokesperson for the����However, Golley acknowledges that many young children don’t get enough iron and zinc, and beef sausages can help raise levels in fussy eaters in the context of a healthy diet.

When choosing a healthier sausage, Golley recommends one with:

• less than 5g saturated fat,
• less than 450mg sodium per 100g, and
• as few processed ingredients as possible.

We searched around for a healthier sausage during our investigation in July 2013, and it proved a challenge. We looked at more than 50 supermarket sausages and found fat content ranging from 3.8g (1.4g sat fat) to 18.4g (9.1g sat fat) per 100g. When comparing across brands, use the per 100g value rather than per serve, as we saw sausage weights ranging from 45g to 84g. Sodium content ranged from 410mg per 100g to 868mg.

We found that Peppercorn Extra Lean Chicken Sausages fit the bill for a healthier snag, with 90% chicken, 8g fat (3g sat) and 450mg sodium per 100g. Farm Foods Original Beef Chevaps (skinless sausages) contained 84% beef, 7.2g fat and 430mg sodium per 100g and a moderate amount of additives. Meanwhile, Riverine Beef Sausages with Feta had 78% beef, 8.2g fat and 640mg sodium per sausage.

The Woolworths-owned Macro Free Range chicken sausages contained 5.4g of fat and 480mg of sodium per 100g, but also had many processed ingredients. Woolworths Chicken Sausages had identical ingredients to Macro but a higher fat content of 10g. It’s also interesting to note that the label of Macro brand was suspiciously similar to the well-known brand Lilydale – which is not sold at Woolworths, but available from rival Coles.

Sausage police

Although FSANZ sets regulations around sausages, it’s the state and territory agencies that enforce the standards. In each state, we spoke to butchers who said council inspectors visit their premises randomly every three to six months, although a wholesaler in Tasmania said she sent her own samples for testing rather than having random audits.

Inspectors test sausages for sulphite, meat and fat levels, and sometimes the species of meat used, if a claim is made on the label. Food authorities also test sausages if they receive a complaint.

There are currently 14 non-compliant butchers on the name-and-shame list for excessive sulphites in sausages. The system isn’t fool-proof and regulations vary in each state. In Queensland, for example, penalties range from $550 for selling non-compliant food to $275,000 for misleading conduct, such as selling beef sausages that contain another species of meat.

The snag with organic sausages

Consumers often choose��organic��because they’re happy to pay a premium for foods with no or fewer chemicals – so we were concerned to find that of all the sausages we tested, the certified organic sausage had the second-highest level of sulphur dioxide (220) with 325mg per kilogram. According to the��, sulphur dioxide is not a permitted additive in organic meat products. The only organic product it’s permitted in is wine.

The organic sausages we bought from the butcher for testing featured the logo of organic certifier OFC (Organic Food Chain) on the label. When contacted, OFC said that the placement of the certifying logo in the butchery was ”an error… and he never intended to sell the sausages as certified organic, only as organic. The OFC reference has now been removed”.

Later that day, we found the OFC logo had been covered over by the butcher. The manufacturer of the same organic sausages displayed the logo of an accredited certifier, Australian Organic, on its website, despite the sausages not being certified at all. This incident illustrates the community’s confusion about organic and certified organic products. As there is no legally enforceable definition of organic in Australia, it’s really left to the interpretation of the manufacturer or seller, which makes it hard for consumers to judge the integrity of the product.

In contrast, if a product is certified organic it’s been checked by one of seven certification organisations accredited by��the . However, under the current regulatory system, if companies don’t comply with the standards there is no legal redress – although the����will investigate complaints.

Exported organic produce must be certified to the National Standard, but for the domestic market certifiers can use their own standards which must be in line with the voluntary Australian Standard (AS 6000). Andre Leu, president of the��, believes organic certification should be brought under a national regulatory system such as in the US, the EU, India and China, where organic claims must comply with one overarching, legally enforceable standard.

The post What’s in a sausage? appeared first on ����Vlog.