UK in new beef row with Brussels

By Chris Impey
Producer, BBC Radio 4 Farming Today

The beef for British mince is hung for weeks to improve its flavour

Many people believe there is no better taste in meat than beef from traditional animals hung for three or four weeks to give it a fuller flavour.

But this delicacy is under attack, from European rules designed to protect French eaters of Steak Tartare. It is feared it could torpedo the older beef of Olde England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Steak Tartare is something of a culinary passion in France - it is essentially a dish made from raw minced beef. It might be a continental delicacy, but it has led to a European Commission rule which has the potential to undermine a huge part of the UK beef industry.

Buried deep on page 33 of a 60-page set of rules, with the snappy title Regulation (EC) No 853/2004, is this sentence:

"When prepared from chilled meat, minced meat must be prepared:

(ii) in the case of animal other than poultry, within no more than six days of their slaughter."

The purpose of this rule is to protect people who eat raw mince from bacteria. Although it was first implemented by the European Commission two years ago, it is only now that the UK government is adjusting domestic legislation to incorporate it.

Traditions under threat

The issue has hit a raw nerve in Scotland, which is a huge consumer of mince, and a huge producer of beef from breeds such as Highland, Galloway and Angus cattle, which are traditionally hung for up to four weeks before the carcass is butchered, to improve the flavour.

The BSE crisis devastated British beef exports in the 1990s

"Hanging meat for a long period has long been recognised as a good way to improve the texture, flavour and quality of the meat generally, and it's vital to our beef industry that we continue to keep the quality of our product," says Penny Johnson of the National Farmers Union in Scotland.

"It will impact the entire beef industry. The quality of our beef products, our steaks, our roasts, everything."

The issue is about more than just mince, which is made from those bits of the animal left over after the joints and steaks have been taken.

If producers cannot make mince from the other bits of the carcass, the whole process becomes uneconomic.

Compromise

In a statement, the European Commission said it expected the UK government to ask for an exception to be made for British mince, although it said no request had yet been made.

"Member States are entitled to notify national technical standards to the Commission and to the other Member States... Whether such technical standards will be granted depends on an evaluation as regards Community trade made by the other Member States and by the Commission."

A spokeswoman said that when the British authorities came up with a compromise proposal, it would be handled within three months.

Producer peril

The upshot of the regulation, those in the meat industry argue, is that producers of those traditional breeds which rely on being hung for those four weeks, are in peril.

Should it go through, those tender, flavoursome 28-day aged steaks which feature on the best restaurant menus are going to become more difficult to get hold of and more expensive to buy.

"These rules have been brought in for the French public... It's got nothing to do with the way that we eat in the UK," argues Donald MacPherson from heritage meat supplier Well Hung and Tender.

The UK's Food Standards Agency is appealing to the EU in the hope of protecting the heritage part of the beef sector. Farmers and British foodies await the outcome with trepidation.