Meat from Rare Breeds

The RBST set up its Traditional Breeds Meat Marketing Scheme in 1994 to establish a farmer to butcher distribution chain to create a market for rare breed meat products.  In 2003 the scheme was put in the hands of the Traditional Breeds Meat Marketing Company Ltd. Today the scheme is growing at a healthy rate.

The Traditional Breeds Meat Marketing Company accredits independent butchers to stock and market rare and traditional breeds.  By bringing together their traditional skills to the proper preparation and hanging of the meat, all the tenderness and juicy succulence will be brought out when the meat is lovingly cooked - something you will no doubt appreciate when you sit down to dinner.

The Accredited Butchers will often also supply top-flight hotels and restaurants and celebrity chefs are now promoting the excellence of well-produced meat from rare breeds.

Below you will find what some famous converts had to say about meat from Rare Breeds:

“Our saddles of lamb are all Southdown…. Our customers demand only the best.”
- Brian Clivaz, MD, Simpson’s-in-the-Strand

“Middle White pork has the crispiest skin and the best flavoured fat to accompany its fantastic tasting meat”
- Michel Roux Le Gavroche Restaurant

“For the public to appreciate how wonderful and different ‘real’ meat tastes, it is vital that the Rare Breeds Survival Trust receives all the support it can from everyone who cares about ‘real’ farming.”
- Antony Worral Thompson

As well as enjoying meat with real old-fashioned qualities of taste and succulence, this initiative provides reassurances for the public about the food they eat:

• Traceability - all animals are pure bred from registered parents and stock can be traced back to its point of birth and every stage between (see below text for more information).
  
  
• A more natural way of farming - the meat that is sold through the Accredited Butchers comes largely from small local farms where the animals welfare is of the utmost concern and the owners have a close working relationship with their stock and where they are bred in extensive conditions. Stock is only sourced direct - never at markets or through dealers - and the farmer transports the animals direct to a local abattoir - reducing the stress and environmental damaged caused by long-distance travel.
  
  
• Local food - ‘food miles’ - the distance that live animals and subsequently meat travels prior to reaching the shelves of national retailers - is causing growing concern because of the impact on the environment. This operation keeps everything local and the Accredited Butcher almost always knows the farm where the stock was raised. Researchers have shown that local food keeps much more wealth in the local area then nationally distributed food and therefore this initiative is beneficial to local rural economies.
  
  
• Helping Conservation - by eating the produce of rare breeds it encourages more people to keep more of them and therefore you will be helping us to save rare breeds.

Full Traceability

Traceability of meat is one of the foremost requirements for consumers today and the Traditional Breeds Meat Marketing Company offers British consumers unparalleled reassurance on meat from British rare breeds sourced through the Accredited Rare Breeds Butchers.

Every steer, sheep and pig supplied through the scheme is fully traceable from birth right through to the butcher’s display. The TBMM Co. issue a certificate to the Accredited Butchers for every item supplied. The certificate is your guarantee from the Traditional Breeds Meat Marketing Company that what is claimed is accurate. Further, they are licensed and audited by the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) for the Beef Labelling Scheme.

If you have any questions regarding the Traditional Breeds Meat Marketing Company or would like any advice on locating rare breed meat or placing rare breed stock please contact:

Traditional Breeds Meat Marketing Company Ltd
FREEPOST (GL442)
Cirencester
Gloucestershire
GL7 5BR

Telephone/Fax: 01285 869666
E-mail: greatmeat@aol.com