The survey can be completed online at: http://www.beefq.wales/survey.html
Welsh beef is renowned for its extrinsic qualities including origin, production systems, welfare and carbon footprint, however, this combination does not always guarantee a consistent eating experience for consumers. The BeefQ Project is developing a system that can be used to predict beef eating quality, to ensure both a satisfactory meal experience for consumers and to reward farmers for producing beef of high eating quality.
In the last two years of the BeefQ project, work has focused on characterising the carcasses submitted for slaughter in Wales and developing the tools to predict beef eating quality based on the Meat Standards Australia (MSA) eating quality prediction system, but verified using UK beef samples and consumer taste tests.
In consumer taste panels conducted in 2019/2020, 1200 consumers were given 7 samples of beef of varying different predicted eating quality, and asked to grade them (on a scale of 0-100) in terms of tenderness, juiciness, liking of flavour, overall liking. They were also asked whether they thought each sample was unsatisfactory quality, good everyday quality, better than everyday quality or premium quality, and how much they would be willing to pay for beef of each of these qualities.
This work revealed that there is strong evidence that Welsh and English consumers can clearly differentiate beef eating quality into 4 distinct categories from unsatisfactory to premium. The results also showed that the consumers in the study placed a high value on eating quality and were willing to pay less for poor quality (i.e. they were less forgiving at the poor beef eating quality end of the scale), but willing to pay a good premium (up to double) for premium eating quality beef (Table 1.).
Table 1. BeefQ consumer willingness to pay for beef eating quality
| Unsatisfactory | Good everyday quality | Better than everyday quality | Premium quality | |
| Price (£/kg) | £4.25 | £9.99 | £15.42 | £22.09 |
| % of good everyday quality price | 42.5% | 100% | 154.4% | 221.1% |
The BeefQ beef eating quality prediction model has the potential to lead to a guaranteed standard of eating quality and increased consumer confidence in Welsh beef, as well as associated rewards for farmers.
Now this work has been successfully completed, the project enters a new and critical phase – that of consultation with Welsh and broader UK farming and food industries. The BeefQ project team would therefore encourage anyone working in the beef supply chain (farmers, abattoirs, butchers, retail), as well as catering and hospitality sectors, to complete a short online survey, the responses to which will contribute to recommendations on the system’s feasibility, if and how it could be implemented and the barriers perceived in doing so.