THE European beef industry began its fightback against falling consumption fuelled by the BSE crisis with a high powered and positive conference in Venice.
The first half of the conference last weekend was taken up with reports on the nutritional benefit of eating beef and the consequences facing those who excluded it from their diet.
A highlight was a paper delivered by Prof Michael J. Gibney of Trinity College Dublin, which said a study had found a lower iron level teenage girls in Dublin.
The speakers stressed the disadvantages of a low meat diet which experts say leads to a lack of enzymatic and nutritional balance, weakened immune response and premature cell ageing.
Mr Francesco Antonini, director of the Institute of Genealogy and Geriatrics in the University of Florence, told the EU funded conference the consumption of red wine with beef enhanced and prolonged the antioxidant effects on the body.
He said that while the antioxidant effect of red wine appeared after the first hour following consumption, the antioxidant effect deriving from meat consumption appeared in the second hour and was not associated with an increase in serum uric acid levels.
He said research had shown that daily consumption of moderate amounts of red wine and a somewhat less frequent consumption of beef caused the disappearance of exhaustion in elderly women. This was partially due to the combined protective antioxidant effect of the wine and the meat on the oxidantive stress in the elderly.
The conference was told that the most recent research on the European consumer attitudes to beef consumption found that 40 per cent had concerns about beef but these were mainly concentrated on offal and mince.
Mr Robert John Bansback from the Meat and Livestock Commission in London said the research showed that consumers were more interested in taste and safety rather than the source of the beef and that they relied on the retailer to give guarantees of safety. He saw no reason why a beef promotion campaign should not succeed in winning back consumers.
Mr Gerard Brickley, a senior executive at the Irish Food Board, welcomed the findings and said they presented a major opportunity for Irish exporters. Italy was one of the success stories for food and drink exports and the market was currently worth over £120 million. Beef exports were worth £78 million in 1995 but fell following the BSE crisis last year. However, there was a good recovery in consumption there, on which exporters were beginning to capitalise.