Europe's chefs give seal of approval to British beef

EUROPE'S leading chefs gave their seal of approval to British beef this week after a two-day fact finding mission hosted by the Prince of Wales. After viewing a leading South Devon beef herd and dining on beef from the Prince's organically reared Aberdeen Angus cattle, many of the chefs said they would be happy to serve British beef in their restaurants.

Among the Prince's guests were chefs from some of France's world leading restaurants who said they would happily serve British beef - if only their government would let them. The chefs - three of the French contingent are Michelin star holders for their gastronomic excellence - heard Prince Charles welcome the lifting of the ban on beef imports by Germany and express his hope that France would soon reconsider its position.

Host farmer Douglas Scott of Wells Folly Farm, Moreton-in-Marsh, told his guests that like most British beef herds he had never had a case of BSE and, in fact, had never seen one.

The visit was the highest profile British beef promotion so far undertaken and hopes are riding high that the chefs will go home and endorse British beef. That, it is hoped, will begin to underpin consumer confidence.

But the enormity of the task to win back European markets is not being taken lightly by the Meat and Livestock Commission which organised this week's visit to Gloucestershire.

Before BSE, Britain's beef export trade was worth an estimated £24million. New orders so far amount to little more than a trickle and the commission has confirmed that officials in other EU states such as France and Spain appear to be attempting to undermine the British sales effort.

At the recent SIAL food fair in Paris, French officials are reported to have approached Dutch and Belgian traders who had placed orders for British beef to insist that the product remained a health risk.

There have also been reports of Irish meat traders offering to undercut British prices. The Ministry of Agriculture has been briefed.

Prince Charles, who initiated this week's visit and a similar one last year for European beef importers, told the chefs: "That visit seemed to go well and I wanted to do the same thing for Europe's leading chefs and restauranters.

"I happen to believe that you are probably the group who most influence your country's eating and buying habits.

"The home market for beef is very strong indeed. A recent survey found more than 70 per cent of British consumers would prefer to eat British beef than imported."

The visit was followed in detail by a large contingent of European journalists - all of whom also appeared happy to eat British beef. It included a demonstration of cattle tracing at Mr Scott's farm and dinner with Prince Charles at his nearby Highgrove home.

MLC chairman Don Curry said: "Consumers across Europe should be able to enjoy the pleasure of eating British beef again." He accepted that the image of British beef had been tarnished by BSE but said that European meat traders held it in high regard. It was among consumers that the reputation of British beef was weak and he hoped the high profile visit would go some way towards changing that perception.

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Royal showcase for best of British beef

THE top chefs of Europe - many of them holders of prized Michelin stars for the excellence of their food - saw British beef at its best this week when they visited a leading South Devon herd at Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire, and later the home of the Prince of Wales at nearby Highgrove.

Among them were such giants of the world of gastronomy as Jean-Michel Lorain the three-Michelin star chef at the La Cote Sainte-Jaques in Joigny, France, and Juan Mari Arzak widely regarded as the greatest chef in Spain.

Indeed, M. Lorain and the owner of Harry’s Bar in Venice, Arrigo Cipriani, were seated next to the Prince at a dinner at his Highgrove estate on Wednesday evening.

At the end of two days the visit, initiated by Prince Charles and organised by the Meat anal Livestock Commission, was deemed a huge success in underlining the safety and quality of British beef through the world's leading chefs who were happy to endorse what they saw and ate.

Many of the chefs said they believed in the quality and safety of British beef and the leading Frenchman in the group, Jean-Paul Mucher, president of the Flo restaurant group was dismayed that his government would not let him serve British beef.

He was not surprised by the high standards he had seen in Britain and he would have no problems with British beef in his restaurants - providcd he was allowed to serve it.

Some admitted to having served British beef at private functions when their governments had banned it. All were happy to taste beef with horse-radish and other sauces, slices of beef Wellington on an extensive menu for them on Tuesday - as were European journalists, many French among them.

The chefs and the large party of journalists - Le Figaro of Paris, the German newspaper Die Zeit and American magazine Newsweek were among those represented - heard Douglas Scott, owner of the Grove herd of South Devons say that in common with most specialist beef herd owners he had never had a single case of BSE in his herd and had never even seen an infected animal.

His Wells Folly farm runs to 145 hectares of which 72 hectares are arable and the rest in permanent pasture.

The herd numbers just over 100 breeding cows with stock reared primarily for sale as breeders but with some bulls being finished for beef.

Mr Scott's visitors heard about the qualities of the South Devon breed - its docility, fast groiwth and foraging abilities. As a dual purpose breed it also produced sufficient milk to rear calves for nine months and in eating quality tests in the United States and Australia has been in the top three.

The land at Wells Folly is predominantly clay soil and for that reason, the visitors heard, the cattle were housed over winter on a simple diet of home produced oat straw plus a molassed mineral lick and little else. Mr Scott said he was seriously considering converting to organic production.

The herd, he said, had been one of the first in the beef sector to introduce electronic ID - and the very first to have its own world wide web site.

MLC chairman Don Curry said: "The fact that the Prince of Wales is showing such support for one of our greatest traditional products is appreciated by beef farmers across Europe. The message that British beef is among the best in the world is one that MLC has been promoting tirelessly. We must not underestimate the challenge we face in overseas markets and with the Prince of Wales' help we should be able to get that positive message across even louder and clearer."