We believe our customers should be able to buy, cook and eat a meal from us and know exactly what they are getting. To deliver on this promise, Polkinghornes oversees the entire process of bringing a meal into the store, direct from the farm and has uncompromisingly high standards of care at every stage of what we call the Polkinghornes Pathway.
Most of the beef sold in Polkinghornes is raised
on Marrinya, our farm in East Gippsland. Run by Rod Polkinghorne himself,
this farm puts into practice 30 years of farming, beef-raising, industry-leading
research and agricultural experience. At this stage of the Pathway, our
primary focus is on animal welfare – including gentle, hands-on animal
husbandry, care for the environment and a system of agriculture that will
ensure future generations are able to still farm the land. Where we have
to rely on other suppliers – for some of our beef, for our chicken,
lamb, veal and pork, we ensure they strictly follow our code of practice.
If they don’t, we change suppliers.
Animal welfare is good business, good practice and common sense. Because we believe our animals should not suffer from preventable illnesses, we vaccinate them in the same way children are vaccinated against measles. If an animal becomes sick and a vet believes that animal requires antibiotics then we will do what’s best for the animal. However that animal will not be prepared for consumption. To ensure optimum eating quality, we do not use growth hormones or promotants.
There are many steps in the process of producing beef at its best – most of which happen long before the meat arrives in the store. We have thought about each of these stages carefully, as each can greatly affect the eating quality of beef. We ensure that all the steps in between the pasture and the plate – transport, how a carcass is hung, aged, chilled and cut – all meet our exacting standards. Polkinghornes works closely with an organic abattoir and operates its own boning room to ensure these standards are met. This improves the eating quality of the meat by up to 25% and is not practised anywhere else. The final stage in the pathway is the grading of each cut of meat, according to independent industry standards, to ensure an eating quality of 3 stars or above.