Pies may get meatier

Regulators have their eye on the traditional meat pie. File picture / Hawke's Bay Today

The rules on what goes in a meat pie could be set to become stricter under a plan being considered by food regulators.

Current regulations on both sides of the Tasman require a meat pie to contain at least 25 per cent meat. The formal definition of "meat" is wide enough to include any part of the animal carcass, or even a bird foetus.

But Aussie pie maker Bakewell Foods, trading as Mrs Mac's, wants the definition changed to content of at least 25 per cent "meat flesh": muscle tissue and any connected rind, fat, blood, nerves, connective tissue, and skin.

Mrs Mac's said in its application to the Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ), lodged in 2003, that the words "meat flesh" should be substituted for "meat" to overcome any consumer doubts about just what was going into pies.

"The current definition of 'meat' has been perceived by some consumers as meaning that meat pies do contain other animal parts," the FSANZ said today.

The consequence had been some dissatisfaction, by some consumers - even though manufacturers said they used only meat flesh. If this was true, setting the requirement in law should not cost manufacturers money, it said.

FSANZ said today that it had no public health and safety concerns about the proposal, and would seek comment from the food industry and consumers.

New Zealand's Food Safety Authority told the standards body it supported identifying the meat species, but saw no benefit in specifying "meat flesh" rather than "meat" and suggested not including offal in the definition could create problems for steak and kidney pie manufacturers.

It also said the existing requirement for 25 per cent meat should be clarified to consumers as the weight when added to the pie, before cooking.

FSANZ proposes to make the change to "meat flesh", to exclude eggs and fish from the definition, and to not apply the meat pie definition to pies containing significant quantities of other foods, such as a steak and vegetable pie.

Later this month, FSANZ plans to start laying down standards for meat products, and reconsider terms such as meat, meat flesh and offal.

"New Zealand regulatory agencies will also need to consider the issues raised," it said in the draft assessment released today.

The application by Mrs Mac's is separate to New Zealand's Commerce Commission singling out the Mrs Mac's brand earlier this year because its pies had less meat than indicated on labels.

The commission discovered in tests that Mrs Mac's Choice Steak pies averaged 27 per cent meat content compared with the 31 per cent claimed on the packaging, and said the shortfall might be a breach of New Zealand's Fair Trading Act.

The commission's test on a Big Ben steak pie found an average meat content of 24 per cent, close to the 25 per cent written on the wrapper.

Mrs Mac's managing director Iain Macgregor said at the time that independent laboratory testing of steak products in Australia had revealed they complied with the label claim.

- NZPA