Meat Standards Australia (MSA)

MEAT STANDARDS AUSTRALIA (MSA)

MSA has been developed over many years of research testing on-farm, processing, carcase, ageing & cooking to determine their combined & collective effect on eating quality. MSA is a consumer based grading system which accurately predicts eating quality for individual beef muscles. This standard solves the consumer problems of selecting beef & choosing an appropriate cooking method.

MSA began as an industry program in 1996 following details consumer research investigated the continuing decline in consumption. The research identified problems including consumers having a reduced level of cut & cooking knowledge & the degree of quality variation in beef. Consumers stated that they would but more beef, even at higher prices, if the quality could be guaranteed.

From the strong agreement among consumer groups of beef eating quality, based protocols were established. The scoring system & boundaries to define grades have been firmly set from analysis of consumer results unrelated to all production factors.

All MSA beef is graded on the basis of the consumer test scored predicted for a particular beef muscle, cooked by the nominated method.

The MSA grade is calculated by the direct & interactive effects of all factors which effect eating quality. Over 50,000 consumers have participated in MSA consumer testing, resulting in 450,000 scores on beef samples from 47,000 individual cuts. The database of results contains: chiller assessment data, individual cut & muscle, days of ageing & the cooking method that was tested. Data including abattoir information & chiller assessment detail is entered into a computer, then a complex statistical calculation is made which predicts the interactive effect of al factors on eating quality. The program then produces a grade score specific to the particular muscle & cooking method, covering 5-30 days of ageing.

KEY MSA POINTS

1.    MSA removes the need for consumers to have specialist beef knowledge

2.    MSA retail labels advise the correct cooking method for every piece of beef & guarantee the eating quality result

3.    MSA product must meet consumer set standards at one of the three-quality level: 3 star (tenderness guaranteed), 4 star (premium tenderness) or 5 star (supreme tenderness)

4.    MSA involves all sectors of the beef production chain, from paddock to plate

5.    MSA provides detailed feedback on eating quality to the processor, feedlot & the producer