A Beef About Supermarkets

(Filed 04/02/03)

On 3rd February 2003, just as the famous Perth Pedigree Bull Sales were starting, I went into Perth to lodge my Sheep Annual Premium form, closing date the 4th February. I then walked across the road from the SEERAD office to Marks & Spencers to see how they were retailing beef. Was it any better than on previous visits? I then went to United Auctions Pedigree Bull Sales and watched the show of Aberdeen Angus bulls that were going to be sold the next day. The previous afternoon I attended the AGM of the Aberdeen Angus Cattle Society, also in Perth. The breed societies and the bull sales are aimed at trying to improve the quality of beef.

At Marks and Spencers the fresh meat counter had disappeared some time ago, so all beef products were wrapped and labelled. Some of the merchandise was labelled Scottish, but nowhere was there any sign of Specially Selected Scotch. Instead they had their own labelling, referring to their selected farms. On asking staff about the quality assurance criteria that Marks and Spencers used, they simply did not know and no written information was available. The section manager tried to phone their head office, but could not get a response. He promised that an e-mail would be sent to me. I checked that he had written down my correct e-mail address. So far no e-mail has been received.

I wondered again why it is that I, like all other livestock farmers, are required to join Quality Assurance Schemes which are simply flouted by Supermarkets such as Marks and Spencers. Marks and Spencers has the arrogance to assume that because they say that their products are of such high quality that they need not bother informing the public what these standards are. As on previous occasions they do not bother to train their staff about these standards either. It may well be that all their Scottish beef meets the Specially Selected Scotch standards, but how is the public supposed to know that?

Most of the beef on sale did not carry a Scottish label, the inference being that most of the beef on sale had travelled from England incurring many food miles and avoiding Marks and Spencers paying the premium for genuine Scottish products.

Another package of meat that caught my eye was labelled 90% lean mince. What on earth does that mean? None of the staff manning the stall had any idea, nor could any member of staff be found in the store who did. Attempts to ask Marks & Spencer HQ by phone was not successful (apparently according to what I was told they all go for lunch at the same time). Did this labelling mean that the product was 10% fat; or did it mean that lean meat was used to make 90% of the product and goodness knows what else made up the other 10%?

In fairness to Marks and Spencers I have to say they are just as bad as Tescos, which is almost opposite where the famous Pedigree Bull Sales were being held. The member of staff at the fresh meat counter clearly had little training as a butcher although he was dressed like one; did not know what Specially Selected Scotch Assured meant; assured me of the quality of Tesco products but could produce no statement of what that involved even after seeking advice from his supervisor. The only Aberdeen Angus beef on offer was in the form of processed sausage meat, which one might reasonably assume is processed scraps of poor cuts.

It is time that the arrogance of the supermarkets who continue to use their own style of labelling without being able to produce evidence of what it means has to stop. Here were two of the small number of supermarkets that monopolise the retail trade paying no attention whatsoever to local circumstances - such as the Pedigree Bull Sales, which in the agricultural arena is a major event. The level of communication about their products to the public was truly lamentable. These two superstores were clearly not the slightest bit interested in trying to bridge the gap between town and country, even in Perth.

On this evidence, if you want to buy quality Aberdeen Angus, or indeed any other kind of meat, it would seem that you are unlikely to get it in either Marks and Spencers or Tescos. To think of asking whether it was just 50% Aberdeen Angus (i.e. an AA bull siring any breed of cow - including dairy), or perhaps 75% Aberdeen Angus, or higher would have been a farcical waste of time. Should you want to see appropriate marbling in a sirloin steak you would again be disappointed, and to ask for it would obviously have been absurd. The colour of beef labelled “traditionally matured” was a characteristic supermarket bright red.

Here then, within a short distance of the manifest efforts of livestock farmers to produce their best, there was crass disregard by two of the supermarket retail monopolies to do any such thing.

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4 February 2003

A Beef About Supermarkets

(Filed 04/02/03)

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