Lower quality my ass, they're just indulging in protectionism.

BlastingNaba said:

Lower quality my ass, they're just indulging in protectionism.

I can't imagine meat frozen on a boat sent halfway around the world would arrive in pristine condition.

OOZ662 said:

I can't imagine meat frozen on a boat sent halfway around the world would arrive in pristine condition.

If flash frozen soon after slaughter, it'll be fine - slow freezing is the one that makes it degrade, not the defrosting. Just like probably the majority of fish that you haven't caught yourself (or gotten in a fishing town) - fishing vessels quite often freeze on-ship.

And IIRC, flash-frozen vegetables have more nutrition than fresh ones in many cases (as well as canned), as they haven't degraded at all. Besides, you don't need to actually freeze beef like that, you can chill it for much longer than you think. Chicken gets frozen more often, as it expires faster.

In Japan, you can get high-quality foreign beef as well, it's just that in normal (non fancy, Whole Foods-like) supermarkets, you'll only be getting the low-medium ones for cheaper than local (depending on where you live in Japan). Until fairly recently (in export terms), there was a heavy tariff on chilled foreign beef, meaning a Japanese consumer would tend towards local production, simply from the price point, but that has been lowered (and continues to do so) to the point that foreign-raised chilled (i.e. never frozen) beef is now competitive.

At any rate, the Japanese Meat Grading Associate can grade foreign carcasses (but not already-processed beef) as well - it's just that the vast majority of foreign-raised beef in Japan tends towards the cheaper, processed variety.

Further, as you don't technically need to refrigerate a beef carcass at all (for aging purposes), it can be easily shipped around the world with very little chilling at all.

OOZ662 said:

I can't imagine meat frozen on a boat sent halfway around the world would arrive in pristine condition.

If that were the case, buddy, NZ wouldn't be shipping any sheep at all.

BlastingNaba said:

If that were the case, buddy, NZ wouldn't be shipping any sheep at all.

As if an average American like me has any idea that some other place ships sheep.