Feel great after a steak? Brain scans show you’re not imagining it.

And the value people derive from eating beef also means there is a huge opportunity for Australia’s beef industry to differentiate beef trimmings to capture premiums currently being missed.

There is as much of a range in palatability in beef trimmings as there is in muscle meat, distinguished US meat scientist Dr Mark Miller from Texas Tech University, told Australian university students attending the 2024 ICMJ conference in Wagga last Friday.

Beef is high-priced compared to other meat proteins, but there is a reason why people are prepared to pay as much as $75 for a steak when they could choose a $25 piece of chicken from the same menu.

“When you have a quality beef eating experience, it changes the way you feel, it changes who you are. We have literally found that out,” Dr Miller explained to the 130 students from across Australia in Wagga on Friday.

Dr Miller said a research project undertaken by one of his grad students used neuro imaging scans to study the brain activity of consumers.

When they ate beef “it lights up that part of your brain that literally is the best day of your life”.

It is the same part of the brain that lights up when people fall in love, have a really good date or have children he said.

“It causes the release of all those compounds – dopamines and endorphins that create a change in you and you feel that warm, fuzzy feeling for five, six, seven hours and so that is why people crave beef.”

In fact he said there was no surprise that people opted to serve beef on important occasions.

“If you have a business deal with a person you want to really impress, what is the number one thing you should eat for dinner?

“Make sure they eat the best beef.

“They may not be sure why they like you or why they like that, but because of the beef they do.”

Not all trimmings are created equal

Many consumers in the US crave beef in the form of burgers and Australia is a vital provider of beef trimmings to help meet that huge demand.

Dr Miller said there were significant opportunities for Australia to further differentiate the manufacturing beef it exports in order to capture more value.

“When we talk about manufacturing beef in Australia there is a lot of range in palatability, in flavour, tenderness and juiciness that occurs in trimmings,” he said.

“You don’t think it has changed but it is truly a wide range, it is all based on flavour, fat and fat composition.”

The average burger manufacturer in the US uses about 10-12 percent of blended imported Australian beef to make each quarter pound pattie.

ICMJ representatives Peter McGilchrist, UNE, Tony Kickert, ACC and Stuart Bisley, Teys Australia, with two of the guest speakers from last Friday’s Wagga conference, Maria Crawford from Coles and Paul Gibson from ACC.

The reason the percentage caps out at around 12 percent is because higher percentages change the flavour and texture to a point where it creates a different eating experience to that US consumers are used to and expect.

“When you have expectations the way it should taste, mouthfeel, anything that is different, it may not be worse but I’m not used to it, so I might go to this other place and eat my next burger because it wasn’t the normal experience,” Dr Miller explained.

“If you think about the amount of exports that happen in Australia, trimmings are the highest level of export, not highest value but highest volume.

“And if you are able to capture brands and value in trim and you get a US burger to take 50 percent, or 40 percent or move that number up by double, what would it do to consumption of Australian beef in the US?

“So we can add value and that is all based on the fact that when we eat that beef it literally changes the way that we feel.”

Highlighting the potential for differentiation, in the US manufactured beef went into products that ranged in value from $4 a pound to $30 a pound.

“It is a value-added proposition,” Dr Miller said.

“One of the things that we really know is where that trim comes from really makes a difference.

“So we’re seeing our packers be able to sort trim and get different values on it based on how it is going to be manufactured, based on how it is going to eat and that is really the new frontier of value added in the US, is being able to get trimmings that we know meet a higher standard.”

Certified Angus Beef was one example of differentiated trimmings that were selling for a premium over other product.