Study finds Northern Irish lamb quality is excellent

Northern Ireland lamb is in a "great position" to compete alongside global competitors, a new report highlighting its all-year round quality and excellence has found.

Entitled 'Benchmarking Northern Ireland Lamb,' the report by the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute was part-funded by the Livestock and Meat Commission and investigated the eating quality and acceptability of Northern Irish lamb in comparison to lamb produced in New Zealand.

The findings of the study revealed that the quality of Northern Irish lamb is excellent and that the industry is in a great position to compete alongside other global competitors.

The report backs up what producers and processors in Northern Ireland have known for a long time that the quality of Northern Irish lamb is exceptional and compares favourably with lamb from around the globe.

The report shows that lambs at nine to 12 months of age performed very well in independent eating quality and likeness trials, demonstrating that the eating quality and consumer acceptability of lamb produced all year round in Northern Ireland is as good as lamb produced in New Zealand.

The results found that there was no significant difference in terms of consumer liking and eating quality between male or female lambs processed at nine to 12 months of age and younger New Zealand lambs at four to six months of age.

Northern Ireland lambs were selected from commercial production between January and April 2017. They were cooked and compared in taste tests with New Zealand lamb.

LMC's mystery shopper data indicated that in December 2017, some retailers sourced as much as 40 per cent of their lamb products from New Zealand.

Northern Ireland lamb has enjoyed success in recent national awards. Hannan Meats, an award-winning meat processor, gained three stars and Top 50 Food status in last year's UK Great Taste Awards for Himalayan salt-aged lamb reared at Glenarm in county Antrim.