York Foods

A rendered Wagyu cooking oil product which can be used as a beef-based substitute for expensive duck fat in cooking has scored a major award at the nation’s largest food industry exhibition.

Goulburn-based producer of rendered food products, York Foods, won best new retail product at the Fine Foods Australia Expo being held in Sydney this week.

The win came against a large catalogue of contenders from a wide range of food and beverage fields designed for consumer purchase on display at the show.

The company’s screw-top jar-packaged Wagyu Oil is a unique oil extracted from fatty Wagyu beef trim under export-quality guidelines at York Foods’ premises in the NSW Southern Highlands.

The company says the resultant product is a 100 percent natural, high quality, cream-coloured cooking oil, which is finely textured and has a satin-like appearance. Its low melting-point around 33c contributes to a desirable mouth-feel and flavour. It is not chemically modified and contains no artificial additives, preservatives or anti-oxidants.

Wagyu oil’s unique properties make it suitable for use in a wide variety of cooking applications, York Foods says. It is suitable for many traditional solid fat applications, such as bakery and pastry products, confectionery, and baking and frying.

The low melting point also makes it suitable in applications using oils, such as salads and stir-fries. Its mild flavour only enhances its versatility.

Many top restaurant chefs use Wagyu fat as a flavourful substitute for duck fat when cooking baked potatoes, for example.

The product packaging emphasises the unique qualities of Wagyu fat, which carry a higher proportion of unsaturated to saturated fatty acids. It says Wagyu oil provides a balanced source of energy, while providing high levels of mono unsaturated fatty acids (51pc) including oleic acid (44.6pc). It also provides a source of Omega 6 (2pc) and Omega 3 (0.2pc).

Fine Food Australia is Australia’s largest gathering of international food, drink and equipment exhibitors for the retail, foodservice and hospitality industries

IT TURNS out there was a reason our parents and grandparents cooked with fat – it tastes better.

And specialty manufacturers of animal origin cooking oils, family-owned and operated company, York Foods, has figured it out and is turning fat into the new black with their gourmet range of animal oils.

Launching their new Wagyu Oil at next week’s Sydney Royal Fine Food Show, York Foods, based in Goulburn on the Southern Tablelands, isn’t new to the oil business, with Edward Morrish Philpott having established the company in 1935.

Still operated by Ted and Lynne Philpott – the third-generation “fat makers” to run York Foods – the Wagyu Oil is a new specialty product aimed at anybody who cooks with any type of oil.

The unique oil is extracted from Wagyu beef and according to Mr Philpott, crosses the boundaries between an animal fat and oil.

Known as a beef breed with superior eating quality, the Wagyu traits are passed on in the oil.

The high meat quality of the Japanese originated Wagyu is achieved because the breed has a genetic predisposition to layer or marble fat throughout its muscle.

And the Philpotts have realised the benefits of using this fat as a cooking base.

The Wagyu fat is unique because of its higher proportion of unsaturated to saturated fatty acids – which makes the meat more tender and juicy.

Previously involved with the Wagyu breed, Mr Philpott said the launch of the oil was the culmination of many years of research and development.

While they didn’t breed their own Wagyu cattle, the raw material was bought in and was extracted only from Australian Wagyu beef.

Made in “virtually the same way my grandfather made animal oils”, Mr Philpott said the oil was manufactured in the old-fashioned way to avoid changing the molecules too much.

The Wagyu Oil is manufactured under strict export-quality guidelines set out by Australian Quaran-tine and Inspection Service (AQIS) at the York Foods factory in Goulburn, making the product 100 per cent Australian made, pure and natural.