Are meat pies healthy?

You may even recall that horsemeat was found in some beef pies and burgers in Britain last year, but rest assured — that couldn’t happen here. (It did in the UK because eating horsemeat is customary in some European Union countries.) Meat pies are one of our most heavily regulated foods. According to Australian and New Zealand law, at least 25 per cent of a meat pie must be meat. So what’s the other 75 per cent? Well, it’s mostly pastry, gravy and vegetable protein. The law also requires pie manufacturers to use cuts of meat we’d normally eat. As a result, the average Aussie meat pie is typically made of cheap beef mince, which tends to come from older animals. This meat is too tough to be sold as quality cuts; however, older meat has a bigger, beefier flavour, which is what you want in a good pie. Aussie companies export the iconic meat pie worldwide.

In a famous gaffe, one well-known brand sent its meat pies to Japan without cooking instructions, so consumers were deep-frying them and serving them upside down! (Perhaps because they were from Down Under?) No wonder the fried pie didn’t take off! When food technologists are developing a meat pie, they’re faced with an important challenge: Consumers must be able to serve the pie straight from the oven (or microwave) and hold it with one hand without burning their fingers or having the pastry collapse. It’s quite a feat of engineering!