Chilled beef proved a strong competitor for fresh beef as it hit supermarket shelves yesterday, with careful shoppers praising its taste and price.
Nine tonnes of chilled beef from Jilin arrived in the city on New Year's Eve - 70 per cent of it went on display at ParknShop outlets, where it sold for around HK$50 a catty (600 grams), compared with HK$62.7 a catty for fresh beef. For those with a little more cash to spend, chilled ribeye steak was on offer for HK$73.2 a catty, compared with HK$91.8 for fresh steak.
Customers at the Tseung Kwan O branch of ParknShop were offered samples of the meat. 'It is good. Very fresh. I cannot tell the difference between chilled and fresh beef,' one woman said. Another woman said: 'The taste is similar to fresh beef, but the price is so much cheaper. I find no reason to buy fresh beef now.'
But some customers were sceptical.
'I still think fresh beef is tastier,' one man said. 'I will see how others think about chilled beef first, and see if the meat quality can be maintained.'
Another woman said that as the price difference was not too great, she still preferred fresh beef.