JBS Global’s flagship Australian brand, Aberdeen Black, has earned its third consecutive gold medal in the UK’s Great Taste food awards held each year in London.
The company’s Aberdeen Black tenderloin entry won a 2-star gold medal this year after earning a three-star gold last year, and a two start gold in the 2012 competition.
Aberdeen Black is JBS Australia’s MSA-graded yearling grainfed program produced at Riverina Beef, the company’s integrated feedlot and processing facility in Yanco, in southern New South Wales.
The Great Taste awards result represents a considerable achievement in a UK food market which carries considerable loyalty towards locally-produced food products.
JBS Australia sends weekly seafreight consignments to Europe which are then distributed to more than 18 countries across the continent by JBS Global.
The Great Taste event, organised by the UK Guild of Fine Food, is the acknowledged benchmark for speciality food and drink in the UK market. It has been described as the ‘Oscars’ of the food world and the ‘epicurean equivalent of the Booker prize.’
The Great Taste logo is the sign UK consumers can trust when buying foodstuffs in their local, quality retailer. The program’s website is accessible here.
“Given the results of the previous two years, we were perhaps a little less surprised this year to pick up a Gold Medal,” JBS Global director Marcus O’Sullivan said.
“This product has earned its stripes, and will be retired from the Great Taste awards. For a single product to win seven stars in three years is pretty special. It just shows the quality of the product and the consistency it delivers,” he said.
As part of JBS’s global push to grow the strength of its branded programs, the company recently released a new information video specifically for the Aberdeen Black brand, which connects the European consumer to the farmers back in Australia who breed and grow the cattle for the brand.
Click here to view JBS’s Aberdeen Black video.
‘Queenslander’ scores grassfed success
JBS Australia had another winning entry with its grassfed striploin entry, packed under the ‘Queenslander’ brand at JBS’s largest Australian facility at Dinmore in southern Queensland.
Queenslander is an export-only brand supplied with EU-eligible, MSA-graded grassfed cattle 0-4 teeth, under the Hilton High Quality grassfed quota.
“We are particularly pleased with these results. It is very rewarding for our whole team, both here in Europe and back in Australia, to know that our brands are competitive alongside some of the finest artisan foods produced here in Great Britain and Europe,” Mr O’Sullivan said.
The European marketing arm of JBS continues to make inroads with its product range into some of the finest restaurants in the UK and throughout Europe.
As the largest European importer of Australian beef and lamb, the company employs a team of international staff at its offices in London and Hamburg.
- JBS Global UK is a wholly-owned subsidiary of JBS Group based in North London. Founded in 2001, it is now one of the largest meat distributers in the EU, distributing fresh, frozen and processed food products produced by the greater JBS Group around the globe. It’s product range includes beef, lamb, chicken and pork from Australia, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and the US.
Congratulations to all concerned with producing such a consistent and high standard branded beef product. In the 1980s and 1990s the Aberdeen Abattoir in the Hunter Valley produced a large share of HQB beef for Europe. Even though time has moved on and the abattoir is now gone, it is good to see that JBS Australia maintains its high standard. Sorry to hear that it is being retired from the Great Taste Awards but with 7 stars in 3 years its reputation is assured. Queenslander from Dinmore is also a great result. Again congratulations to all at JBS who produce such a consistent quality.