Only 7% of respondents correctly identified autumn as the time for tucking into one of Britain’s favourites, with half (49%) choosing spring as the best time to serve lamb – the time of year when most lambs are born.
The research marks six months of the National Trust’s mass on-line MyFarm experiment at its 1,200 acre organic farm at Wimpole in Cambridgeshire.
The project aims to involve people in farming and where their food comes from by enabling them to make decisions on a real working farm.
An online straw poll of the MyFarm community revealed that 19% knew the best time of year to enjoy lamb, suggesting the experiment is making useful progress.
Richard Morris, the National Trust’s farm manager at Wimpole, said: “Eating lamb when it’s in season ensures consumers can enjoy the meat at its best. Lambs born in the spring feed outside on grass throughout the summer resulting in really flavoursome and tender meat.
“The lamb we see on our supermarket shelves in the spring is either shipped in from abroad, or has been barn-reared out of season without the benefit of maturing and developing naturally on grass.”
Other results highlighted consumer confusion over hogget (a mature lamb between one and two years old) with only 16% of respondents aware that hogget is meat from sheep.
It also revealed only 40% of Britons buy British lamb with 21% buying its New Zealand relation and 16% just indiscriminately selecting whatever is on the supermarket shelves.
By contrast, 51% of MyFarm subscribers could identify hogget, three times as many as the wider survey, and 63% brought British lamb.
Source: The National Trust
© FoodBev Media Ltd 2024