NOT that long back, minced meat was arguably the most generic of protein products in a typical Australian supermarket chilled cabinet.

Beef mince was often a single product line – maybe offered in two different tray pack sizes 500g or 1kg.

Scroll forward to today, and beef mince is arguably among the most segmented fresh food items in the entire store. Only items like eggs, or possibly coffee (albeit not in the fresh food section), would rival mince for diversity of offer in one of Woolworths’ or Coles’ 2000-odd stores across Australia.

As demand for ground beef has grown in the face of spiralling prices for more expensive muscle meat cuts, different ground beef segments for different consumer groups have gained traction. What’s also evident is the dramatic difference in price point between the budget and premium end – especially when compared with minced pork, lamb and chicken.

With lean 85CL chilled trimmings trading in the domestic wholesale market this week in a range from high tens to as much as $11.50/kg for volume business, based on the retail price below there is clearly very little retail margin at present on an item like beef mince.  The recent decline in cow slaughter as cattle supply has tightened means there is currently a disproportionate volume of grainfed cattle in the weekly slaughter mix. That has pushed demand and price for leaner trimmings (versus fatty grainfed trimmings) higher, wholesalers said this morning.

Let’s illustrate the current market position using Woolworths’ current mince offer.

Ranked from ‘budget’ to ‘premium’, Woolies national beef mince range this week includes the following, priced on an $/kg equivalent basis:

• Market value (budget) beef mince (no lean/fat ratio provided, no health stars provided, but likely 75-78CL) $13/kg
• Beef mince regular (82:18 lean/fat ratio, 3.5 health star rating) $15/kg
• Lean beef mince (90:10CL, 4 health star rating) $19-$20/kg, depending on pack size
• Heart Smart Extra Lean beef mince (95:5CL, 4.5 health star rating) $20/kg
• Macro Grassfed lean beef mince (90;10CL, 4 health star rating) $24/kg on special, down from $25

Beyond that already large range, Woolworths now offers a beef/pork mince blend, ‘ideal for bolognaise’, the mostly widely consumed home cooked meal in Australia. The relatively cheap raw material price for pork trimmings means that item is the cheapest of all red meat minces offered by Woolies, at just $12.50/kg (85:15 CL, 3.5 health stars).

This Cleavers Organic beef mince sells in Coles this week for $33/kg

While Woolworths online shopping platform today was not displaying Certified Organic beef mince options, national retail rival Coles currently carried two: Cleavers Organic premium beef mince $27/kg, and a Cleavers Organic extra lean mince version at $33/kg.

That means there is an incredible $20/kg price difference at retail, between the two price extremes for beef mince, for a product that once sold in Australia at a single, generic price.

It also means that major retailers are currently stocking up to eight separate beef mince items in their fresh meat offer.

Segmentation based on fat levels in beef mince is also creeping into pork and chicken offerings, but the price difference between leaner and fattier options is mostly less than for beef.

Woolies lean pork mince (90:10CL, 4 stars) is today retailing for $15/kg; extra lean (95:5CL, 4.5 stars) at $16/kg, while everyday pork mince was on special at the equivalent of $10.31/kg (earlier $11/kg).

Chicken mince is divided into two categories, priced very differently, defined by production system:

• Everyday RSPCA approved chicken mince (no CL or health star rating provided) is retailing this week at $11/kg, while
• Macro free-range chicken mince option (no CL provided) is a significant 63pc more expensive, at $18/kg.

Lamb mince remains a single offering, with Woolworths lamb mince (80:20CL, 3 health stars – the fattiest of all mince meat offerings where CL is identified) at $18/kg.

While few Australian eat turkey outside the Christmas period, toss two turkey mince offerings into Woolworths’ chilled cabinet mix (turkey mince and turkey beast mince, ($13/kg and $25.50/kg respectively), and a typical national retailer is now stocking up to an incredible 16 minced animal protein options for customers to choose from.

The only way this is possible, in a highly perishable product made even more sensitive to shelf life challenges by the mincing process, is through the use of modified atmosphere (gas flushed) packaging (MAP), allowing chilled shelf life to go from two days to a week, in many cases.

Virtually all supermarket minced meat is now sold in MAP packaged form.