Tesco Launches British Rose Veal

Tesco has announced the launch of fresh Rose veal on its meat counters after working with pig farmer and presenter, Jimmy Doherty on ideas to re-introduce the meat into British supermarkets.

The retailer will be stocking three cuts of succulent and flavoursome Rose veal – a joint, sirloin and rump, which can then be cut into steaks, escalopes or roasting joints by Tesco’s expert butchers to suit customers’ needs.

Tesco introduced a Brookfield Farm-branded High Welfare Veal range in its stores earlier this year with products including meatballs, stir fry, escalopes and roasting joints. The range has proved to be extremely popular with customers and Tesco plans to roll out the products in more stores next year.

Sean McCurley, Director of Counter foods at Tesco said: “I’m delighted we’ll now be offering our customers British Rose Veal on our meat counters.

“We know how important good quality British meat is to our customers, so we’ve been working hard to refresh our products and offer something different. Our expert butchers will be on hand to help customers with tips on how to prepare Rose Veal and if it proves as popular as our branded high welfare veal range, we will look to extend it further in the New Year.”

Jimmy Doherty said: “When I first started this project, I was shocked by the needless waste of young calves in the dairy industry, so it’s good to see the country’s biggest supermarket doing something about it. There is still more to do but this is the first step in introducing a new generation of people to British veal.”

Since the 1980’s, demand for British veal has been low and as a result, many dairy farmers have no option but to slaughter their male calves shortly after birth. The retailer hopes the new products will help prevent the waste of male calves across the British dairy industry.

The Rose veal range is produced on British farms according to Tesco’s own high welfare standards which are independently audited. The calves are bedded on straw and reared in open barns on a diet of milk and cereal.

Tesco’s Brookfield Farm High Welfare Veal range is produced to RSPCA Freedom Food standards.

Notes to editors

Tesco British Rose veal will be available on meat counters in selected UK stores from this week.

Tesco offers a pre-packed high welfare veal range by Brookfield Farm, with products including meatballs, stir fry, escalopes and roasting joints. Brookfield Farm will also be launching veal mince shortly.

Brookfield Farm received the 2011 Compassion in World Farming Good Calf Award, further supporting the brand’s commitment to animal welfare and excellent farming practices. Products sold under the brand also have Freedom Food/RSPCA and Quality Standard accreditations.

All Brookfield Farm calves are born and reared on farms in the West Country, including the idyllic Tarrant Valley in Dorset. Calves are carefully reared on straw bedding in groups, with completely unrestricted access to food, barley straw and water.

Veal has fantastic nutritional values, comparing favourably against other meats and poultry. It has fewer calories and a fraction of the fat and saturated fat compared to lean beef, pork and lamb.

Earlier this year, Tesco unveiled a multi-million pound revamp of its meat, fish and poultry offer with improvements to quality, range and in-store display.

Quality improvements across beef, pork, chicken, fish, sausages, bacon, burgers and meatballs can now be seen in all Tesco stores.

Quality improvements include:

-Finest beef steaks matured for 28 days and Tesco brand range for 21 days.
-All Finest chicken is now free range corn fed.
-More meat in burgers and meatballs.

In November, Tesco announced it would become the first retailer in the UK to work directly with beef and pork farmers with the launch of two new farming groups. The groups, run by committees of farmers, will guarantee beef farmers an above market price for their meet and a price linked to the cost of feed for pork farmers.

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