Cornish Food Market

RSPCA Freedom Food Accreditation and how we know that beef means beef…

February 12, 2013 in | 1 comment

It is very difficult for us to hear the scandalous tales of horsemeat appearing in supermarket products without feeling a little 'Schadenfreude' tinged with a hint of smugness. When we set up cornishfoodmarket.co.uk one of our guiding principles was to source as much food locally as we possibly could while understanding that to compete with the supermarkets we needed to carry a big enough range to be attractive to consumers used to a wide choice.

Luckily we in Cornwall are surrounded by great produce from land and sea including some amazing pork, beef and lamb. Our butcher Robert Trevarthen was chosen because he is close to us (literally two miles down the road), already had a fantastic reputation for quality and service but most of all he is as passionate as we are about sourcing the best local produce and treating it with the utmost respect. To that end, in addition to the safeguards required by law in this country including the presence of independent vets and meat hygiene inspectors from the Food Standards Agency at all abattoirs, Trevarthen's are RSPCA Freedom Foods Accredited. This Freedom Foods Accreditation gives us the re-assurance that the animals are handled with dignity and respect for their whole lives. The process at the abattoir is constantly monitored, a vet is in attendance when the animals are slaughtered, meat hygiene inspectors check every single carcass and the process from receiving the live animals is recorded by CCTV with RSCA inspectors able to demand to see the film at anytime to ensure that animals are being handled properly. Robert Trevarthen personally overseas every aspect from the purchase of prime Cornish livestock in Truro every Wednesday to the packing and storage of finished product including beefburgers made with 100% Cornish beef - you can read more about Robert's business here and the RSPCA's Freedom Food Accreditation here.

All of this is in striking contrast to a system of supply that involves hauling live animals, carcasses, cut meat and processed meat and then retail product to and fro across Europe, in and out of poorly regulated premises geared to doing everything as cheaply as possible to meet the cost requirements of the big supermarkets. The irony is that our products, when compared with that available in the supermarkets, are not only superior in taste, texture and freshness but often less expensive. The very handsome bullocks pictured above are what Robert buys - they produce the tenderest steaks, tastiest roasting joints and the delicious 100% beefburgers. It appears that the supermarkets have no idea what they are buying - even for those products that are, in their words, 'own label'. We fear that the current revelations may only be the tip of the iceberg - who knows what is going on in other sectors of the food industry?

From the start our mantra has been 'Buy Fresh, Buy Local' - with every passing day more and more customers are seeing the sense in doing the same.