Research Projects

Australian Red Meat -

Consumption & Nutritional Value

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Research projects in this topic area explored red meat consumption, its nutritional value and implications for nutrition communications within the context of Australian dietary patterns and Australian Dietary Guidelines.

 

Average red meat consumption

  • Secondary analyses of Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) national nutrition surveys (2007, 1995, 2011-12) – to investigate red meat consumption trends relative to other animal proteins, composition of red meat meals and dietary patterns associated with red meat consumption1-6.

Popular meals and practices

  • Qualitative and on-line quantitative surveys – to better understand the red meat meal occasion and implications for nutrition communications, a series of studies were conducted to investigate different aspects of main meal choices and practices in 2009, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2018 and 2019.7-12.

Typical recipes

  • Qualitative and quantitative surveys – to determine portion sizes and type of beef and lamb products, including level of trim, used to make popular meals in the Australian diet13.

Nutritional composition of red meat

  • Retail studies – to determine gross composition (% of edible separable lean, separable fat) and nutritional value of products available for purchase in Australia. Studies were conducted in 1987, 1992, 2000, 2002, 2010, 2015 and included a range of beef, lamb, veal, mutton and goat meat cuts, mince and sausages with nutritional values calculated for lean, semi-trimmed and untrimmed products and available from the Australian Food Composition database.
  • Analysis – to determine cost-effective ways to maintain easily accessible, up-to-date and accurate nutrient compositional data for Australian beef and lamb, a detailed examination of analytical data extracted from published and unpublished reports from Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) and from Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) of beef and lamb retail samples collected from 1982-1985 was conducted14.

 

Publications

Average red meat consumption

  1. Baghurst K, Record S, Leppard P. Red meat consumption in Australia: Intakes, nutrient contribution and changes over time. Aust J Nutr Diet. 2000;57:S3-36.
  2. Meyer B, Mann N, Lewis J, Milligan G, Sinclair A, Howe P. Dietary intakes and food sources of omega-6 and omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. Lipids. 2003;38(4):391-8. doi:10.1007/s11745-003-1074-0
  3. Bowen J, Baird D, Syrette J, Noakes M, Baghurst K. Consumption of beef/veal/lamb in Australian children: Intake, nutrient contribution and comparison with other meat, poultry and fish categories. Nutrition & Dietetics. 2012; 69(Suppl.2):1-16. doi:10.1111/j.1747-0080.2012.01642.x
  4. Sui Z, Raubenheimer D, Rangan A. Consumption patterns of meat, poultry, and fish after disaggregation of mixed dishes: secondary analysis of the Australian National Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey 2011–12. BMC Nutr. 2017;3:52. doi:10.1186/s40795-017-0171-1
  5. Sui Z, Raubenheimer D, Cunningham J, Rangan A. Changes in meat/poultry/fish consumption in Australia: From 1995 to 2011–2012. Nutrients. 2016;8(12):753. doi:10.3390/nu8120753
  6. Sui Z, Raubenheimer D, Rangan A. Exploratory analysis of meal composition in Australia: Meat and accompanying foods. Public Health Nutr. 2017;20(12):2157-2165. doi:10.1017/S1368980017000982
  7. Grieger J, Scott J, Cobiac L. Cluster analysis and food group consumption in a national sample of Australian girls. J Hum Nutr Diet. 2012;25(1):75-86. doi:10.1111/j.1365-277X.2011.01195.x
  8. Grieger J, Scott J, Cobiac L. Dietary patterns and breast-feeding in Australian children. Public Health Nutr. 2011;14(11):1939-47. doi:10.1017/S1368980011001030

Popular meals and practices

  1. Meat and Livestock Australia. Last Night’s Dinner. Sydney (NSW): MLA; 2009. https://www.mlahealthymeals.com.au/research/reports/
  2. Meat and Livestock Australia. Main Meal Repertoires. Sydney (NSW): MLA; 2011. https://www.mlahealthymeals.com.au/research/reports/
  3. Meat and Livestock Australia. What’s Cooking. Sydney (NSW): MLA; 2013. https://www.mlahealthymeals.com.au/research/reports/
  4. Wang W, Worsley A. How often do we use cooking utensils? An exploratory study. Journal of Culinary Science & Technology. 2014;12(4):326-338. doi:10.1080/15428052.2014.904834
  5. Wang W, Worsley A. Who uses herbs and spices? Nutrition & Food Science. 2014;44(4):363-374. doi:10.1108/NFS-09-2013-0105
  6. Worsley T, Wang W, Wijeratne P, Ismail S, Ridley S. Who cooks from scratch and how do they prepare food? Br Food J. 2015;117(2);664-676. doi:1108/BFJ-01-2014-0018
  7. For information about the Eating Out study, contact nutrition@mla.com.au

Typical recipes

  1. For information about the Typical Recipes study, contact nutrition@mla.com.au

Nutritional composition of red meat

  1. Greenfield H, Kuo Y, Hutchinson G, Wills R. Composition of Australian foods. 33. Lamb. Food Technol Aust. 1987;39:202-207.
  2. Greenfield H, Kuo Y, Hutchinson G, Wills R. Composition of Australian foods. 34. Beef and veal. 1987;39:208-215.
  3. Greenfield H, Southgate D. Food composition data – production, management and use. London (GB): Elsevier Science Publishers Ltd; 1992.
  4. Hutchinson G, Thomas D, Truswell A. Nutrient composition of Australian beef. Food Technol Aust. 1987;39:199-201.
  5. Sadler M, Lewis J, Buick D. Nutrient composition of trim lamb and lean beef. Food Aust. 1993;45:S1-S19.
  6. Williams P, Droulez V, Levy G, Stobaus T. Composition of Australian red meat 2002. 1. Gross composition. Food Australia. 2006;58(4):173-181.
  7. Williams P, Droulez V, Levy G, Stobaus T. Composition of Australian red meat 2002. 3. Nutrient profile. Food Australia. 2007;59(7):331-341.
  8. Droulez V, Williams P, Levy G, Stobaus T, Sinclair A. Composition of Australian red meat. 2. Fatty acid profile. Food Australia. 2006;58(7):335-341.
  9. Fayet-Moore F, Cunningham J, Stobaus T, Droulez V. Fat content and composition in retail samples of Australian beef mince. 2014;6(6):2217-28. doi:10.3390/nu6062217
  10. Cunningham J, Nguyen V, Adorno P, Droulez V. Nutrient composition of retail samples of Australian beef sausages. Nutrients. 2015;7(11):9602-17. doi:10.3390/nu7115491
  11. Droulez V and Cunningham J. Review of the nutrient composition of Australian red meat. Sydney (NSW): MLA; 2022.
  12. For information about the analysis on beef and lamb nutrient composition data, visit the Australian Food Composition Database, or contact nutrition@mla.com.au