Claire Tindale gave a very informative talk at the Young Beef Producers Forum on the MLA 'Masterpieces' project. This project aims to increase the use of secondary meat cuts in the food service industry. MLA is doing this through educating chefs about how to best use these cuts & providing them with creative recipe ideas.
Currently the food service industry makes up 30% of the domestic market. On average food service establishments give beef 18% menu share, with most dishes being the traditional loin cuts. MLA hopes to increase beef menu share through introducing ‘new & creative’ beef menu items using the secondary beef cuts. As these secondary cuts make up 39% of the carcase (compared to 2% for the loin cuts) it makes sense to try & increase their use.
So far 400 chefs have been through the ‘Master classes’ along with many wholesalers. Once the beef ‘Masterpieces’ project has been rolled out MLA is going to do the same for secondary lamb cuts.