Tea-fed Beef to Beef Up Popularity of Japan's Top Tea Country: Shizuoka

Top Sukiyaki beef comes either from Kobe or Matsuzaka and possibly from Omi, Maekawa, etc., or you nake it. When it comes to green tea, Shizuoka tops all other tea-producing lands across the country in term of total production. Why beef and tea? Well, hold your horse, you will find that out soon enough.

Shizuoka tops others in the volume of green tea drinks marketed nationwide and, naturally, in that of tea grounds or used tea leaves that are thus far made into compost or simply thrown away.

Now, the Animal Husbandry Technical Research Institute in Shizuoka has come up with an idea of making better use of the tea grounds.The institute's senior researcher Sachie Kobayashi says tea-fed cattle produces better-tasting meat and believes that Shizuoka can create a new brand product of tea-fed beef.

Most tea grounds are processed into compost and what's left simply disposed of. "Tea grounds abound in Vitamin E and catechins - easy to digest. Why throw them away?", says Kobayashi-san.

Cattle love sweet stuff to eat - sensitive to tastes and delicate to alien foods. The researchers have tested a number of samples with less odor and added flavors, etc. over a period of good one year and a half. They came up at last with a formula using the strained lees of sugar cane. Cattle finally find it god enough to feed on.

The prefectural government of Shizuoka plans to finish researching by the end of this year and start installing necessary quality standards en route to introducing a new brand of tea-fed beef. 

Kobayashi-san adds:

"We plan to appoint a corporate to start producing the feed and, what is more, we go all out to help promote Shizuoka in yet another area of business."

You never know - you might ask for Shizuoka Beef the next time you visit Japan - the tea-fed beef from Shizuoka. (Nathan Shiga) 

Source: Nikkei