Goat Meat Put to the Ultimate Taste Test

Article by: Hari Yellina

According to one meat scientist, research on how customers react to goatmeat prepared in various ways by cut might be utilised to boost domestic consumption of the product. Jarrod Lees of the University of New England took home the $22,000 Meat & Livestock Australia Award as part of the Science and Innovation Awards for Young People in Agriculture, Fisheries, and Forestry last year. His prize money was used to investigate if goat meat, like beef and lamb, can be distinguished by cutting. Dr. Lees’ work has included sensory assessment of grilled and slow cooked goatmeat pieces over the last year, with a roast meat taste test slated for the end of March.

“When you look at how Meat Standards Australia managed the sheepmeat eating quality programme, a large part of it was really about managing the processing elements that affect eating quality.” “The average tenderness score for all the cuts we offered them as a grill was 51.3 out of 100 and their juiciness scores were 54.6 out of 100.”Interestingly, the flavour score was 60, which is pretty promising given that we presented it to a group of consumers where maybe 10 out of 60 had never eaten goatmeat before.” When scoring the fat, the goatmeat utilised in the study tested 3.3 to 3.4 percent intramuscular fat and had an average GR value of 14.5mm.

Although majority of Australia’s goat output involves captured or managed wild populations going for export markets, Dr Lees said high-quality farmed goat meat might attract a premium when sold domestically. “Before we start pushing domestic consumption, we really need to work together,” he remarked. “If a large number of people suddenly decided to buy goat meat, we might wind up with a lot of low-quality goat on the market.”We need to work together to promote goatmeat as an alternative red meat while also ensuring a higher level of consistency in goat quality.

Dr. Lees believes that ensuring that people understand how to properly cook goatmeat is also critical for the product’s future success. If someone buys some goat chops and decides to just grill them on the barbeque, that will work if it’s a good goat, but if it’s not, they will have a bad eating experience that will taint goat for them for a long time. Normally, a terrible eating experience can last up to eight weeks, but with a new protein, you might never try it again.