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Bargain fillet steak at FreshChoice City Market in Christchurch – but how come it's so cheap? The answer is its origin.
The mystery of a luxury cut fillet steak being sold in Christchurch supermarkets at an irresistibly low price has been solved.
The puzzle was highlighted by Stuff this week when FreshChoice City Market and FreshChoice Barrington offered a “red hot special” of whole beef fillets at $29.99 a kilogram. Premium fillet steak sells for between $40 and $60 a kilogram.
The supermarkets, owned by Neville and Heather Brown, refused to answer questions about why the meat was so cheap and the supplier, Prime Range Meats Ltd, based in Invercargill, was similarly silent.
An industry insider with 35 years’ experience in butchery said the cheap fillet steak was almost certainly from dairy cows at the end of their productive lives or from dairy cows who had not become pregnant.
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He said the fillet from dairy cows was smaller and had less marbled fat because the muscle development was different. The animals were also older.
The quality wasn’t as good as prime steer or heifer beef, he said, but by the time the cut was cooked with salt and pepper it would be hard for most people to tell the difference.
It was possible the chilled meat had come on the market in New Zealand rather than be exported to China because shipping delays at Chinese ports prevented the meat landing ahead of best before dates.
Stuff
Top left: Angus cow bred for producing steers and heifers for table cuts. Top right: Jersey cow at the end of its productive life to be processed into meat for sausages and hamburgers. Bottom left: Friesian cow for milking but whose crossbred calf will be raised for table cuts. Bottom right: Angus steer, slaughtered at 18-30 months for table cuts.
Chilled lamb was currently being sold cheaply in New Zealand because of the shipping problems, he said.
A major dairying area like Southland would have numerous end of productive life dairy cows ready for processing each season, he said.
In addition, each season dairy cows were scanned to see if they were pregnant and those not in calf could be sent to the freezing works if the farmer did not want to carry them over the winter.
Retailers were entitled to call the product beef fillet and it would come in cartons labelled as such.
New Zealand remained one of the safest countries in the world for meat processing, he said.
A Stuff reader from Christchurch said she regularly bought the specials when they were available and often wondered why the beef fillet was so cheap.
Stuff
Prime Range Meats in Invercargill supplies beef fillet to some FreshChoice supermarkets.
“I don’t think it’s top grade fillet ...What I do is buy a whole fillet and cut it into meal size portions and freeze it.
“It is brilliant for a quick week-night meal as a ‘steak’. It is also, now, nearly as cheap as cheaper cuts of beef and I have started using it in stir-fry. Enjoy it while it lasts.”
A Hamilton reader said he had been buying cheap meat all year.
“I would love to know why as well. In the meantime I am eating a lot of roast lamb and shepherd’s pie.”
The whole fillets were regularly for sale in Nelson, another reader said. She wasn’t impressed with the quality and slow cooked some parts of the fillet.
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April 14, 2023
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Mystery of cheap fillet steak sold at an irresistible price solved - Stuff
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