Grass-fed beef: the answer to the British meat industry's prayers?

Rising production costs and retail price increases of 22% over the past two years have put innovation at the top of the beef industry’s agenda. Suppliers and retailers have been successful in introducing innovative cuts to maximise margins, but if industry marketeers are to prevent shoppers switching to other proteins in the long term, they need to up their game. Could the promotion of “grass-fed” beef be part of the answer?

It’s a strategy already being embraced in the US, where producers sell beef from cattle fed on a high-grass diet as “grass-fed” to consumers. Such beef is usually marketed for its superior omega-3 levels (see box) and typically commands a healthy premium at retail. Interest is also growing among the UK’s niche and artisanal producers. Last year a group of farmers set up the Pasture-Fed Livestock Association, which plans to conduct a trial of selling grass-fed meats under the Pastoral brand.

Given the majority of cattle reared in the UK is indeed fed on a high-grass diet, the use of the term “grass-fed” could represent an easy opportunity to justify the higher price of beef and offer a new way to engage consumers. Online meat specialist Athleat, which operates a delivery service targeted at athletes and fitness fanatics, believes there is plenty of potential to market grass-fed beef to UK consumers. The company has been selling beef mince, steaks, joints and jerky from grass-fed British cattle under the strapline ‘the best meat in sport’ for the past two years, and co-founder Adrian Cox says the business - although still small - is growing fast and counts a number of top athletes among its customers.

“We decided to sell grass-fed beef primarily from a nutritional standpoint for our higher-class athletes and people conscious of the benefits of grass-fed beef,” he says. “Grass-fed is our number-one selling point and seems very popular. It’s going very well with the fitness and health industry.”

For mainstream suppliers, however, marketing grass-fed beef could prove trickier. It’s one thing to sell grass-fed beef to a highly selective group of consumers aware of the higher omega-3 level actually launching a big campaign extolling the health benefits of grass-fed meats is another matter altogether.

It all comes down to EU health claims regulations. Grass-fed beef does contain higher - and nutritionally significant - levels of omega-3, but not enough to qualify for a health claim, says Eblex senior regional manager Dr Phil Hadley.

“Grass feeding makes an impact on omega-3 levels, but not to that extent,” he says. “It doesn’t take beef into the oily fish category.”

EU health claims rules would restrict what could be done to promote grass-fed beef in the UK, but countries such as Ireland and New Zealand show it is possible to turn grass-based grazing systems into a marketing tool without falling foul of the rules. The secret? They simply don’t make any health claims. “They’ll emphasise it’s a grass-based extensive system and reinforce that message, but the health claims aren’t there to be had,” says Hadley.

This approach is plain to see in the latest online and social media campaign by the Irish Food Board, Bord Bia, which is currently promoting Irish beef under the slogan ‘Grasstronomy’ in the UK. The accompanying website claims “thanks to the abundance of lush, green fields on the Emerald Isle, our amazing grass-fed beef is farmed for its taste and quality”. Bord Bia trade marketing specialist Henry Horkan says the board is “confident” in the health benefits of grass-fed beef but that its message around grass-based production is much simpler. “Because Ireland has such a high grass-based agricultural system, we’ve used that as one of the things they may not have elsewhere in Europe,” says Horkan.

The UK also has grass-based systems, so are UK producers missing a trick? Potentially, but although cattle in the UK are fed a lot of grass already, it might prove difficult for producers to feed herds exclusively on vegetation. “Farmers rear almost exclusively on grass but generally supplement the grass with grain for the last 100 days,” says Hadley. “They feed the cattle on pasture, where they grow the skeleton and muscle, and then finish them to lay down fat.”

That layer of fat plays an important part in giving beef its flavour and taste, and is valued by British consumers, Hadley adds. “In the summer it might be possible to fatten cattle 100% on pasture, but in the winter - to ensure the animal carries a good level of fat and to give the beef a good flavour - farmers would require at the very least a good supply of silage or alternatively grain,” he says.

This is borne out by the experience of Muddy Boots Food, which sells its branded burgers through Waitrose and Ocado. When the company first started selling burgers at farmers markets, it was using beef from cattle fed on an almost exclusively grass-based diet but soon found the meat wasn’t delivering the right flavour. “There was no consistency and there was not enough fat - our burgers just shrunk up,” says co-founder Miranda Ballard.

Finishing cattle on grain would obviously rule out marketing British beef as “100% grass-fed”, but there could be opportunities for suppliers to promote their beef as “predominantly grass-fed”.

Ballard certainly thinks it would be good if the use of grass by British producers could be turned into a bigger USP, but warns a lot of work first needs to be done on educating consumers. Back in its farmers markets days, Muddy Boots did promote its burgers as grass-fed, hoping this would create a strong point of difference, but consumer interest was surprisingly muted, says Ballard. “I’d say only about 5% of our customers even enquired about it, and some were asking ‘why are they being grass-fed?’”

That isn’t to say the UK couldn’t make grass-fed work in its favour, but it would need the industry’s biggest players - the retailers - to come on board, says Ballard. “If the supermarkets did it on own brand, maybe it could be quite big.”

There’s no denying promoting UK beef as grass-fed would have its challenges, but given the supply base is already there, perhaps it’s time producers challenged marketeers to find a way to make it work.