Ordinary Britons to get taste of exclusive Japanese beef

LONDON —

Japanese Wagyu beef has long been the preserve of Britain’s exclusive restaurants and London’s high-end stores, like Harrods.

However, the average man in the street will soon be able to have a taste of the prized beef thanks to a major supermarket chain which wants to bring luxury foods to everyone.

ASDA, part of the Walmart group, has just started breeding cross Holstein-Wagyu cattle for its supermarkets and hopes to start selling the product from early 2011.

Although not pure Wagyu meat, which retails for as much as $170 per kilogram, the meat will have many of the characteristics of Wagyu (which literally means Japanese cattle) which make it so appetizing to gourmets.

With Wagyu beef, the fat is more evenly distributed than in other meats and it has a highly marbled appearance. The fine strands of unsaturated fat in the meat melt when it is cooked, giving it a greater depth of flavor than other kinds of beef.

ASDA plans to sell a striploin of its Wagyu-Holstein for $41 per kg, which means that it can be afforded by most consumers.

Because the store is producing its own Wagyu and does not have to import anything, the store is confident it can keep costs down and reduce the price to the consumer.

Pearce Hughes, the company’s agricultural development manager, said, ‘‘Wagyu beef is the best in the world, but until now it has been the preserve of the extremely well-to-do. We want to make it affordable for the average man in the street.’‘

ASDA took semen from two pedigree black Wagyu bulls which are resident in Britain. Breeders in southern Scotland then inseminated a Holstein cow and a few months later their efforts paid off with the birth of the first Wagyu-cross, which they have named ‘‘Inochi,’’ which means ‘‘life’’ in Japanese.

The bulls used in the breeding process are the result of implanting Australian fullblood Wagyu embryos into cows in Europe. The bulls’ genes are linked to the Kedeka and Fujiyoshi lines.

Following the successful birth, farmers will now inseminate further Holstein cows on a Yorkshire farm and the plan is to produce 2,500 Wagyu-Holsteins each year, providing 750 tons of meat.

ASDA has decided to use Holstein dairy cattle in the program rather than other breeds such as Red Devon and Aberdeen Angus females, partly because the latter two are more valuable for pure breeding than Holsteins.

But Hughes adds, ‘‘Wagyu-cross-Holstein is deemed as the ultimate cross in Japan because the two breeds lay down marbling in exactly the same way, producing top quality meat superior to Wagyu-cross-Angus or Red Devon. It has been known for Wagyu-Holstein beef to match the eating quality of purebred Wagyu in taste trials.’‘

The meat will be less fatty than pure Wagyu but bosses at ASDA believe that this will appeal to health-conscious Britons.

Pure Wagyu have been bred in Wales on a small scale since 2000. Farmer David Wynne Finch imported some embryos of mixed black Wagyu and implanted them into some standard cross-bred beef cows. He has a herd of around 30 Wagyus.

The Wagyu breed has only been exported out of Japan on three occasions.

While the Wagyu breed is considered indigenous to Japan, DNA testing has shown that it was influenced by European breeds brought about through cross-breeding in the early 1900s.

The Wagyu breed comes in black and brown colors. The blacks originate from four areas of Japan—Tottori, Tajima, Shimane and Okayama—each with slightly different attributes. Other types of Wagyu originate from Kochi on the island of Shikoku and Kumamoto on the island of Kyushu.

In Japan, it is claimed that farmers massage their Wagyu cows in order to ensure the fat is evenly distributed. They are also fed grain and given beer to stimulate appetite.

However, many Western breeders have cast doubt on these practices and believe that the quality of the meat derives from the genetics and nothing else.

Many breeders believe Japan has looked down on the Wagyu cattle bred outside the country and the government has said in the past that only Wagyu born in Japan can be labeled Wagyu.

ASDA is keen to bring exotic foods to the man in the street and is currently establishing a truffle forest in the north of England.

ASDA is also cultivating edamame—baby, green soybeans—in Britain.

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Latest 15 of 37 Total Comments Show All

womanforwomen at 12:40 PM JST - 10th November

Brits would look good and healthy with a small well balanced diet with edamame please.
Yelnats at 12:44 PM JST - 10th November

Do not try to BBQ this meat. It goes up in flames in seconds and drips through the grill into the coals. I tried it and lost a bunch of yen doing it. Smelled good though.
dammit at 01:11 PM JST - 10th November

Britons have spent their lives being told to avoid any fat in meat. I don't believe it'll be a success because it looks too fatty.

And why the **** would ordinary Britons pay for food in dollars?

POUNDS mate! We've not been overrun by the yankies just yet! ££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££

And I don't give a rat's **** how many of your readers are yanks. Britain is a sovereign country with it's own currency.

Thank you very much.
Jizzeez at 05:01 PM JST - 10th November

Fatty horrible quality beef. It makes me feel kind of ill when I eat it. You can't beat real roast beef, British style.
Altria at 05:07 PM JST - 10th November

This stuff is wasted on the Brits. They'll either boil it to death or cram it in a pie.
BigInJapan at 03:10 AM JST - 11th November

I dont see how would a Briton enjoy this kind of meet, considering the completely different culinary traditions. This kind of meet is completely useless for most European-type of dishes.

By the way, cow fat is saturated fat and it is not healthy at all. Just because it has a "Japanese" stamp on it, it doesnt make it healthy.
Himajin at 03:54 AM JST - 11th November

Oh sure! They can breed cattle which have saturated instead of unsaturated fat!

Unsaturated fat is 'good' fat, saturated is the bad stuff.

Regular beef has a 1:1 ratio of unsaturated fat to saturated, wagyu has a 2:1 ratio. After you cook wagyu, you can see that the fat remains liquid at room temperature.
inakaRob at 09:20 AM JST - 11th November

I watch a lot of top chef, and they have KOBE beef on the show a few times. Maybe somebody can explain. All the so called famous kobe beef I have seen, is marbled like hell. Just crazy white and red marble. You cant mistake that type of beef, even its cheaper imitators. On the top chef. it just looks like a nice big red slap of meat. now I get that there are different cuts of beef. But isn't all meat taken from a kobe cow super marbled. So i guess my seconds question is cant farmers in kobe raise just a normal cow and not do all the special things to raise the cow into a 'kobe beef' cow, and then sell his cheaper meat as kobe beef simply because it came from kobe?
Himajin at 06:35 PM JST - 11th November

Yes, all the meat is marbled, to different degrees. The wagyu stew meat makes a great curry or beef stew. It's less marbled than the sirloin or rib eye cuts.

No, you can't raise a regular cow in Kobe and call it Kobe Beef. It needs the pedigree, as well the fat content etc to be labeled Kobe Beef, and the producers have to be certified.

All Kobe Beef comes from wagyu cows,but not all wagyu cows become Kobe beef."Kobe Beef" is a brand, it was the first place in Japan to breed these cows and market it. There are other brands, I think Sanda Gyu is just as good (and affordable!), as is Nishiwaki's Kurodasho Kuro-ge Wagyu. I hear that Tajima Beef is good too.
ptolemy at 01:08 AM JST - 12th November

Actually, all you know it alls are full of crap.

Miyazaki beef is the best as it is grain fed and not range fed. Also, Kagoshima beef is grain fed as well but not let out to walk as much. The marbelling in beef is fat to muscle ratio.

More fat, the more flavor it will have, but also the most detriment to your heart, arteries, and kidneys. Best rule of thumb is to choose beef that has a 60% meat and 40% fat ratio. Grill the meat and blot it on paper towels after cooking.

By the way, cows are cows. No matter where they come from. My Miyazaki comment was facetious. Omaha has the best beef.
Himajin at 05:07 PM JST - 12th November

What 'know -it-alls'? Another well-adjusted JT poster...
dbung10 at 11:20 AM JST - 13th November

Im from Britain. This wont sell well in britain without some excellent marketing. When the average shopper sees fat on meat, especially a steak, they think 'cheap, no good, unhealthy'. When they see lines of fat running through meet, most people will assume that this is really cheap stuff and should be used for a stew or in a pie etc. Very few will pay 25 quid a kilogram for this.
LoveUSA at 09:12 PM JST - 13th November

Ordinary Britons - sooo funny will be able to eat exclusive meat. They must be so delighted.
Hirota56 at 12:36 PM JST - 14th November

Beef is beef and fish is fish...just thank the good LORD that we have food to eat
realist at 12:28 AM JST - 15th November

Asda will regret this decision. British people like red meat, as others have said here. We dont like horrible fatty stuff. Sorry, but Wagyu will not sell to ordinary Brits. We have plenty of good British Beef, the best in the world - oh, and we pay for in in Pounds Sterling.