Coles beef brands – the thieves know what eats best.MEAT thieves know superior eating quality beef when they see it on supermarket shelves, Southern Beef and Lamb School delegates were told in Wagga Wagga this month.

In his presentation, University of New England meat scientist Professor Peter McGilchrist showed how science – through Meat Standards Australia grading — has delivered successful brands in the beef industry.

So successful, that those who choose to just take rather than pay for beef cuts in the supermarket, know just what to pilfer.

UNE meat scientist Prof Peter McGilchrist

Prof McGilchrist used Coles beef brand range to illustrate how carcase cuts are segregated into “good, better, best” in eating quality, and gave some interesting stats on which cuts meat thieves focus on.

“Maybe it’s topical this week, I’m not sure whether the Down Down happens in beef, but in the Coles offering we’ve got good, better and best brands.

“So if you haven’t worked it out Drovers Choice is their good brand, and their porterhouse steak at this point of time is $28.50/kg, their better brand is Coles Butcher, it’s $42.22 a kilogram – same animals just cut in half on quality,” he said.

“And the top end is here, Coles Finest, $54/kg, still striploin, just different animals.

“This is value-based marketing, right there on our shelf every day of the week,” Prof McGilchrist said.

“They’re not just some breed and fed some way etcetera, they’re actually segregated based on MSA, not that MSA features anywhere on their labels.

“That’s using science to cut that normal distribution up into ‘good, better, best’ and market them the same, and those brands wouldn’t be on the supermarket shelves if they didn’t sell, so they absolutely sell,” he said.

“And one interesting fact, 13 percent of the Coles Finest cube rolls and fillet steaks get stolen every week in Australia.

“So our thieves of meat are actually quite clever,” Prof McGilchrist said.

“I don’t know whether they like to eat meat or they sell it to someone, but theft of beef in Coles per week is about $600,000.

“But they never take the Drover’s Choice apparently, so even they know where to go.”

Prof. McGilchrist said the battle on price is never going to be won, the industry just needs to deliver value on quality to the consumer.

“As the great Warren Buffett said, ‘Price is what you paid, but value is what you get.

“We would never want to challenge chicken on price, we don’t care, so where does value come in; it’s enjoyable, delicious and versatile,” he said.

“You can cook it heaps of different ways, it’s quick to prepare so when you pick the kids up from daycare and you’ve got about half an hour to prepared the evening meal before they turn into absolute gremlins, you can do that, right?

“And then, at the same time, they eat it – it’s always nice when you cook something and they eat it as well,” he said.

“So that’s where value is for our consumers and so delivering value is where our expensive red meat needs to go – it’s nutritious and it’s consistent.”

The four-day inaugural Southern Beef and Lamb School at the Charles Sturt University campus at Wagga Wagga was an initiative of Riverina Local Land Services.