Tableland Blue
Tableland Blue premium grass-fed beef is raised on the fertile volcanic soils of the Atherton Tablelands. Reliable rainfall and tropical climate, allows us to grow quality nutritious grass all year-round. This is valued by our group of likeminded family-owned producers who supply Tableland Blue Beef.
The ability to locally produce and process our beef reduces animal stress and promotes better animal welfare.
The result is tender, high quality, tasty red meat.
Our Difference
The ability to breed, fatten and process our own cattle through our family-owned abattoir provides us with a unique opportunity to practically implement and refine the principles of meat science. This allows us to consistently produce high quality red meat with great eating quality.
Byrnes Meats Quality Assurance is a series of standard operating procedures and assessments that we have created in-house to ensure consistency in quality. The keys attributes that we use for our BQMA assessment include animal stress, pH, meat colour, fat characteristics, ossification, and minimum aging requirement.
These attributes are assessed at different stages of processing:
ANIMAL STRESS
Live animal stress during the pre-processing stage can result in a depletion of glycogen reserves in the animal’s muscle. This results in an increase in the meat pH which causes the meat colour to darken, decreases shelf life , causes eating quality and cooking inconsistences.
This can be minimised by reducing transport and handling stress and maintaining a nutritious diet.
Meat Colour
Meat colour is scored against a set of colour reference standards that reflect the bright cherry red colour that consumers expect. Stress can play a significant role in meat colour as it affects meat pH levels.
Byrnes Meats Quality Assurance is a series of standard operating procedures and assessments that we have created in-house to ensure consistency in quality. The keys attributes that we use for our BQMA assessment include animal stress, pH, meat colour, fat characteristics, ossification, and minimum aging requirement.
Fat Characteristics
Adequate fat coverage is measured to ensure meat is not cooled too quickly which can increase toughness. Fat colour is also measured and is assessed by looking at the colour of the intramuscular fat lateral to the ribeye muscle. Fat colour does not impact eating quality but can have lower consumer appeal.
Ossification
The maturity of a carcass is measured by ossification, which is the process of cartilage turning to bone in the vertebrae. As an animal matures, the fibres in the meat become progressively stronger, more rigid and are less likely to be broken down in cooking, resulting in tougher meat. Poor nutrition during early animal growth stages can increase ossification compared to animals of the same age that have received optimal nutrition.
Minimum Ageing requirement
Ageing is a result of the naturally occurring enzymes breaking down the muscle fibres, which results in improved tenderness and eating quality. Research has shown the maximum tenderness achieved by ageing occurs in the first 21 days. We have a minimum requirement to age our beef for 21 days in vacuum-sealed plastic bags, which can be stored in refrigeration for up to 12 weeks.