Should the South African red meat classification system be revised or maintained? A review

Z Soji,V Muchenje

doi:10.4314/sajas.v47i5.1

Z Soji, V Muchenje

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https://doi.org/10.4314/sajas.v47i5.1

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The objective of this review was to determine whether the current South African red meat classification system still needs to be revised and changed or maintained. It also gives insight into the most significant challenges related to meat quality evaluation in this system. Red Meat Research and Development South Africa (RMRD SA) was requested to lead an investigation into the relevance of the current South African red meat classification system. A final decision was made to maintain the system as it was in 2016. Nonetheless, it is still unclear whether consumers buy meat according to the standards set by the system, since it is mostly understood and practised efficiently by middlemen, especially abattoir operators. The general perception that this system is not quality based, but descriptive, has resulted in seeming non-transparency among some red meat industry stakeholders. Although the red meat industry is emphasizing that a quality assurance system remains too expensive to be implemented in South Africa and that the current system should be sustained, there is still room for revising it. All predictions in this review indicate that the present system cannot satisfy all the needs of the current consumer. The system seems to be inclined towards meat traders, since it is value based and may not reflect the expectations and needs of consumers in terms of meat quality. This paper therefore concluded that the South African red meat classification system still needs to be revised and more research should be done for it to become more effective. Keywords : Assurance system, consumer needs, meat quality, meat traders, red meat industry

Highlights

The development of the South African red meat classification system can be traced back to 1936
In 1992, the South African meat industry was deregulated (National Agricultural Marketing Council (NAMC), 2001). This led to the development of the current South African red meat classification system to replace the grading system, which was believed to be biased, since it ranked carcasses in order of merit, from the most preferred to the least (KwaZulu-Natal Department of Agriculture and Environmental Affairs (KZN DAEA), 2005)
The current system was developed to provide a basis for meat traders to describe carcasses in simple terms for pricing and purchasing (South African Meat Industry Company (SAMIC), 2006)

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Introduction

The development of the South African red meat classification system can be traced back to 1936. In 1992, the South African meat industry was deregulated (National Agricultural Marketing Council (NAMC), 2001). This led to the development of the current South African red meat classification system to replace the grading system, which was believed to be biased, since it ranked carcasses in order of merit, from the most preferred to the least (KwaZulu-Natal Department of Agriculture and Environmental Affairs (KZN DAEA), 2005). The current system was developed to provide a basis for meat traders to describe carcasses in simple terms for pricing and purchasing (South African Meat Industry Company (SAMIC), 2006). Industry stakeholders are presently still indecisive as to whether the current system is satisfactory to describe the quality of red meat, in particular meat eating-quality attributes such as tenderness

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