Fears that as much as 30 per cent of the beef sold in Australia is old cow meat repackaged as prime produce has prompted the NSW Government to introduce rules to protect consumers.

Shoppers have little way of telling the true quality of the meat they are buying because there is no grading system for locally sold beef, nor any onus on retailers to inform their customers of the quality of a cut.

Locally sold meat is graded under Meat and Livestock Australia's voluntary MSA scheme, but only about 12,500 of the nation's 160,000 cattle properties are MSA-accredited.

Under the scheme animals aged 3½ years or older - including dairy cows too old for breeding - are classified by the industry as eight-tooth cows and considered only suitable for consumption as mince.

But under a Voluntary Beef Retail Agreement which has been operating for almost a decade, retailers are permitted to sell old cow meat as cuts such as rump, scotch fillet and T-bone as long as it is labelled ''budget''.

http://www.smh.com.au/national/beef-row-new-rules-to-protect-shoppers-20091009-gqwi.html