Role of red meat in the Australian diet

Red meat is Australia’s favourite meat

• Australians eat red meat, on average, 2 beef and 1 lamb meal per week.¹
• Steak and veg is one of the most popular evening meals.²
• Australians tend to eat their beef and lamb, fresh, trimmed of fat and with at least 3 different vegetables.^{2 3 4}

Amount of red meat consumed

2009 Per capita meat consumption

• Australians and New Zealanders eat more lamb than other countries, such as USA and Europe, similar amounts of beef to the Americans, less pork than the Europeans and less chicken than the USA.  ^{5 6 7}

• Mean intakes of red meat reported in the last nutrition survey in Australia was 45g/day for women and 88g/day for men and in kids (aged 2 to 16 years), 40g for boys and 29g for girls. ⁴

Red meat is a major part of the Australian diet and makes an important contribution to intake of key nutrients 
 

• Red meat is a significant contributor of essential nutrients in the Australian diet including iron, zinc, protein and vitamin B12; and the second greatest contributor of omega 3 in the Australian diet, after fish. ^{4 8}
• There is plenty of good evidence showing that red meat is one of the best sources of iron and zinc and that it helps prevent iron and zinc deficiency. ^{8 9} 

Also read more:

• Last night's dinner
• Eating for Health

References:

¹ Roy Morgan. Australian Meat Purchasing Data, Category report Q3 2009. Meat and Livestock Australia. 2009.

² The Clever Stuff. Last Night’s Dinner Report. Meat and Livestock Australia, 2009.

³ Williams P, and Droulez V. Australian red meat consumption – implications of changes over 20 years on nutrient composition. Food Australia. 62. 3 (2010): 87-94.

⁴ Baghurst K, Record S and Leppard P. “Red meat consumption in Australia: intakes, nutrient contribution and changes over time.” Australian Journal of Nutrition and Dietetics. 57. 4 (2000): 1032-1322.

⁵ Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARE). Australian Commodity Statistics. Meat and Livestock Australia. (2009): 156. http://abare.gov.au/ (May 2010).

⁶ United States Department of Agriculture. Economic Research Service. Food availability (per capita data system). http://www.ers.usda.gov/data/foodconsumption/. (May 2010)

⁷ Database from the Eurostat Statistics website. http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/ (May 2010).

⁸ The role of red meat in healthy Australian diets. Nutrition and Dietetics. 64. Suppl 4 (2007): S99-195. 

⁹ Australian Guide to Healthy Eating www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/content/E384CFA588B74377CA256F190004059B/$File/fd-cons.pdf