QUALITY and perceptions of lamb among consumers is on the radar for a visiting academic from Norway.
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In Norway, PhD student Muhammad Azher Bhatti from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences is researching quality and consumer perceptions of sheep meat.
He has spent the past three months at the Graham Centre for Agricultural Innovation at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Wagga. “I was given the opportunity to travel anywhere in the world as part of my PhD studies,” he said.
“I chose Australia because it allowed me to work with researchers from the Graham Centre for Agricultural Innovation who have expertise in meat science and consumer sensory analysis,” Mr Bhatti said.
“It’s been an opportunity to build my capacity as a researcher, work directly with my Australian supervisors, build networks, and to learn new techniques that I can apply to my research in Norway.” Mr Bhatti’s PhD is focused the Norwegian sheep meat industry, in particular consumer perceptions of halal meat. “Sheep meat accounts for a large part of the red meat in Norwegian diets,” Mr Bhatti said.
“With freezing winters and small flock sizes, Nordic sheep meat production is vastly different to the large grassfed production systems of Australia,” he said. Due to this production is focused around a three-month slaughter window because farmers can only afford to house breeding stock over the harsh winters.
“This means that storage, quality and supply are some of the factors influencing sheep meat production and consumption in Norway. “I also want to investigate consumer perceptions about halal meat (because) 4.2 per cent of the population in Norway is Muslim and this is an important market for the industry.”
Aside from the value of research collaboration Mr Bhatti says he’s enjoyed visiting Australian farms, abattoirs and of course the butcher shop. “I’ve been interested to see how the Australian industry makes use of the whole animal carcass and have taken great interest in how Australian sheep meat is presented in the retail sector,” Mr Bhatti said.