Increased Lamb participation in QSR's (Quick Service Restaurants)

Summary

• MLA wanted to understand the barriers that quick service restaurants (QSRs) and full service restaurants (FSRs) had in featuring lamb products on their menus. The aim of the project was to identify and address these barriers, to drive the demand for Australian lamb products in this sector.
• Interviews were conducted with thirteen QSR/FSR companies that had two to 350 outlets around Australia. The main barriers that these companies identified were inconsistent product quality, reliability of supply and high costs, compared to other proteins.

Objectives

• Determine what the barriers are for value added lamb products in the QSR market and identify opportunities for lamb in this market.
  Investigate possible processing and formulation interventions that could address barriers and thereby increase the likelihood of lamb products in the QSR market.
• Develop and test two proof-of-concept lamb QSR products, i.e. one minced/comminuted product (e.g. reheated lamb kofta/sausage/burger) and one whole-muscle product (e.g. pulled lamb shoulder).

Key findings

• Lamb is traditionally eaten as part of a meal e.g. as roasts and chops, therefore lamb is not considered a ‘go to’ protein in QSR compared to chicken and beef.
• Lamb is preferred by the older demographics, as they grew up with eating lamb and like its flavour.
• There are several challenges with featuring lamb on the menus:
  - Cost of raw meat – it was too expensive compared to other meats. The premium price leans it towards a special occasion meal rather than QSR.
  - Consistency of quality – variability in the product quality e.g. seasonal issues with rib fattiness.
  - Reliability of supply (ribs) – when purchasing for a chain of restaurants as a promotional item, supply can be an issue.
  - Whole of carcase is utilised with limited off-cuts i.e. lamb legs, ribs and shanks are often used for roasting or slow cooking, hence limited amount of meat is available for further processing; often relying on lamb shoulder to be the only source of manufacturing meat for value adding.
  • Mediterranean flavours (Middle Eastern, Greek) are suited to lamb.
  • Warmed over flavour is not an issue with QSR and FSR products.
  • New lamb products must be able to use existing equipment for cooking and reheating.

Benefits to industry

• The industry should consider the findings from the stakeholder interviews and address the challenges that have been identified around product quality, consistency, reliability of supply, and costs, such that lamb can be featured on the QSR/FSR menu all year round, rather than as a special occasion meat.
• The two products developed in this project – lamb burger patty and pulled lamb – both utilise lower value cuts. This creates a great opportunity for the industry to value add to the lower value lamb cuts and trim, as well as address the unmet needs of the QSR/FSR market and consumers.
• Both products can be stored and cooked from frozen without impacting on sensory quality. This would negate the need to thaw the product in advance which would reduce product wastage; and the industry could maintain a continuous supply of these products such that lamb products could be regularly featured on QSR/FSR menus, which would increase the demand for Australian lamb.

MLA action

Publish final report and share with the foodservice and quick service restaurant sectors.

Future research

Industry can approach various stakeholders to gauge their interest in further developing these products and testing/featuring these products at their venues.