The Red Meat Advisory Council says it will engage with State and Federal Governments to ensure the accurate labelling of meat products in future.
The RMAC board met in Brisbane last Friday and one of the issues discussed was the emerging trend of lab-grown or plant based foods being labelled as ‘meat’.
Don Mackay, Independent Chair, Red Meat Advisory Council said shoppers and consumers should have the right information for the right products when it comes to Aussie red meat.
“Meat by definition comes from an animal that is slaughtered for human consumption and labelling should of course reflect that.”
“Other claims should also be accurate and verifiable, particularly unsubstantiated references to thing like ‘clean’ or ‘environmentally friendly’ or even ‘better for you’ that remain unchallenged.”
“We will continue engage with the relevant State and Federal Governments to ensure that is the case.”
“Our domestic market is our largest market, so it is a priority for us that Australian red meat in this country continues to be enjoyed by our Aussie shoppers and consumers.”
Just as the French wine industry was able to protect their industry names eg. Champagne, we in the red meat industry should be able to protect our names ie; red meat is just that, and should not be allowed to be used in any way to falsely describe “fake meat” as in products derived from soy, or anything else. If it does not come from an animal, it is not meat!