Cattle on Diet as New Wagyu Brand in Wakayama Targets Health-conscious Meat Lovers
JAPAN - Some Japanese black cattle in Wakayama Prefecture, renowned for the distinctive fatty marbling of their meat, have been put on a diet.
8 May 2019
1 minute read
A new less-fatty wagyu brand has been launched in the prefecture in hopes of attracting health-conscious meat lovers looking for leaner beef.
Since 2015, the prefectural government has been working on the development of Kishu Waka beef, harvested from cattle that eat low-calorie feed, in cooperation with local farmers.
They succeeded in cutting the amount of fat in the meat by about 10 percent while increasing the vitamin content through raising the cattle on so-called ecofeed, an ecological and economical feed made from food waste and ingredients including pomace generated from the production of orange juice and soy sauce, both of which are local specialties of the prefecture.
According to the Japan Meat Information Service Center, there are over 150 wagyu brands that produce their meat from Japanese black cattle raised primarily in the Kinki and Chugoku regions.
Wagyu beef is graded — from 5 to 1 — based on fat marbling, or the way the fat is distributed through the meat, the brightness of the meat, its firmness and texture, and the brightness and quality of the fat, the center said.
Japanese black cattle make up 90 percent of all fattened cattle in the country.
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Source: The Japan Times
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