Despite all the discussion surrounding the potential new technologies for the definition of eating quality in the Australian Beef industry at the moment, nothing beats the ultimate test; the beef eating consumer.
For Thousand Guineas, nothing has defined the excellent eating quality of the brand, more than winning the consumer taste testing competitions at the Regatta Hotel and the Norman Hotel this year.
In August this year, 170 consumers sat down to the blind taste testing competition, the Regatta Hotels Big Beef Off, where samples from sirloins steaks sourced from 5 of Australia’s leading grain fed brands were prepared by the professional team of chefs, led by Executive Chef, Simon Street. Consumers voted using standard industry measures of tenderness, flavour, juiciness and overall liking.
JBS Australia entered its Thousand Guineas Shorthorn brand for the first time this year, in an effort to test the brand against some of the best brands in the country. Thousand Guineas was voted the best overall steak on the night, which JBS Australia Business Development Manager, Denis Conroy, found extremely satisfying.
“It is great to be part of a competition like this; to get feedback directly from such a large group of consumers. It really tells us where the brand is positioned.” Denis said.
In October, the Norman Hotel, Brisbane again ran their annual “You be the Judge” competition, where consumers enter the competition to judge steaks from four breeds.
This year’s event saw the Thousand Guineas brand competing for the opportunity to claim back to back titles, having won the competition last year.
Consumers at the Norman Hotel were again asked to judge the breed based products on a criteria of tenderness, flavour, juiciness and overall liking.
The Norman Hotel is one of the leading Brisbane steak house restaurants and runs the annual competition over the month of October. For a venue that is selling in excess of 2,500 steak meals per week, that means a lot of independent judges voting for their choice.
Thousand Guineas again won title of Best Beef for the second year in a row, in fairness, despite stiff competition from the other breeds in the competition.
“Nothing beats this consumer feedback,” Denis Conroy said, “Consumer satisfaction is what we are all about.”
No matter how eating quality is defined by the industry moving forward, one thing is clear, nothing will matter unless that quality is consistently appreciated by the consumer.
Which means that the JBS Australia Thousand Guineas brand is positioned extremely well to deliver outstanding outcomes for the Australian Beef industry both now and in the future.