When a family in the US puts some Australian lamb cutlets on their grill, Will Barton wants it to be delicious.
And he believes the only way to make sure that consumers of Australian lamb across the globe keep coming back for more is making sure it's a great eating experience every single time.
This is a passion for Mr Barton, who is CEO at his family's Gundagai Meat Processors (GMP) - to make sure Australian lamb is a consistently good product.
This has driven GMP to take the lead in methodically testing each and every carcase and selecting the top for eating quality to be sold as a premium product.
Now he is taking that product to the world and encouraging consumers to try Australian lamb.
Mr Barton said the journey for GMP focusing on eating quality started quite naturally.
"We started to look at the measurement of lamb carcases a long time ago. We quickly realised that there was a really cool yield measurement, the DEXA X-ray unit we've got," he said.
"Then we thought 'if we've got the DEXA unit, we might stuff the carcase up if we don't have an eating quality measure'. So we partnered with MEQ (using the MEQ Probe, which estimates the intramuscular fat (IMF) in hot lamb carcases)."
"We've been paying producers for quality for a bit over two years now. We are well and truly along the journey."
It's time to change
Mr Barton isn't backwards in coming forwards about what he feels the lamb industry needs to change.
"I have a very strong view that the industry should be adopting the measurement we are using here to measure lambs, so all producers know where they stand," he said.
"We can measure lean meat yield (LMY) using DEXA, and IMF percentage using the MEQ Probe. We also measure individual animal health and carcase defects using our meat inspectors who put that into a RIFD tracking system.
"We have an online portal which feeds that information back to the farmer on the day of processing. We are the only plant that does this for every lamb that goes into our branded Gundagai Lamb."
This year that will be around 120,000 lambs.
Mr Barton reckons other processors need to come to the table.
"We've got more demand for processing space than we can accommodate, and a lot of that demand is driven by people just wanting that information about their lambs," he said.
"It's a frustration of mine that other plants aren't providing the same feedback, because if they were, Australian lamb generally would improve much quicker."
He said other supply chains may not see the necessity for honing in on these measurements in lambs.
"If you're a large lamb supply chain in Australia, and you've been selling lamb for 50 years on the basis that it is a lamb and it weighs 25 kilograms as a carcase, and it's all great, you would ask 'why do I have to grade it into good, better and best, because I'm selling all of it at the moment like it's best?'," he said.
"Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) and everyone in the boat has done a great job so far of trading Australian lamb as if it's all fantastic, but the reality is that it's not. Some of it is better than others.
"Our view is if you continue to export and sell all lamb products like they are all ultra-high premium products, over time you will disappoint consumers because sometimes it's not.
"Meat Standards Australia (MSA) was created because 20 per cent of lamb loins failed to meet consumer expectations in a survey done in the early 2000s.
"If you are pushing into a market like the US where they don't eat a lot of lamb - the average consumption of lamb in the US is 400 grams per person per year - but 20pc of the time it is failing consumer expectations, that limits our ability to grow that market because some people are having bad experiences.
"They are not having bad experiences routinely - they are having bad experiences randomly, because all this lamb is mixed in with each other."
He said lamb needed to compete with other proteins in the US, and if it was sub-standard, it didn't have a chance.
"They eat 400g of lamb but they eat 25.3kgs of beef - that means they are eating 63 times as much beef as lamb. Not an insignificant amount of times it is failing to meet their expectations."
He said with their Gundagai Lamb product, only the best are sold as premium under their prestigious GLQ5+ brand.
"People pay more for it, but every time they eat it, it is the same because it is measured," he said.
"This isn't about any special breed or special nutrition - and they both have their place.
"For us, it is a much more fundamental thing - just measure the lamb you are already buying, categorise it into everyday and exceptional, and you will let down consumers less.
"It makes so much sense it's frightening how few people have taken it up."
He said 20.5 million lambs were processed in Australia every year - and only 0.5pc of those were through the Gundagai Lamb brand.
"For a lot of those 20.5m lambs the producer is looking for that data on their lambs.
"Even if 10pc of the Australian lamb kill was getting this feedback, it allows more seedstock producers and commercial producers to understand where they sit and improve. Everyone stands to benefit."
What's next
This journey for GMP is about to cross the globe to the west coast of the US.
Mr Barton will be speaking on a Future of Meats panel in Los Angeles at the Chef's Roll Anti-convention next month, and Gundagai Lamb will also be showcased.
"We're trying to increase our west coast lamb sales, and to become a staple on the menu of some of the best restaurants in the US, like we have in Sydney," he said.
He will also be heading to the LA Chef Convention the following month to present on their product.
"We broadly built this thing organically over the past two years. Now we will put some resources behind it. The thing that becomes a key part of our success is we need to source the lamb. The good farmers don't know who they are - the only way to find out is to be processed through a plant that gives this feedback."
