British Heritage Sheep, a company wholly owned by NSA, has been working with AHDB to champion the unique flavour brought to the table by native sheep breeds. Britain has the largest number of native sheep breeds of any country in the world – over 60.

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he British Heritage Sheep (BHS) scheme aims to commercialise our historic native breeds by making an asset out of diversity, and offering a choice to consumers, and at the same time a genuine taste difference. The BHS scheme is based on an ABC of three key pieces of information for the consumer – Age, Breed and Countryside.

NSA Chief Executive Phil Stocker commented: ‘Not all sheep meat tastes the same, particularly as sheep get older producing hogget and mutton, the main factors affecting the flavour are the age of the animal and its breed. To some extent what the animal eats will also affect its flavour - for example, a mountain sheep eats predominantly wild herbs and grasses, giving the meat a distinctive eating experience, highly prized in past generations. Sheep meat is one of the last undifferentiated foods in mainstream markets. We all know about the many types of cheese, apples, and even beers and gin, but consumers are rarely informed about the breed of sheep, where and how it was reared, or its age.’

The mutton taste testing threw up some interesting results with US visitors concluding that there are consistently determined and significant differences in flavours and textures between the different UK sheep breeds, particularly in older animals.  Wider public opinion backs up this idea that consumers would welcome a choice. In a YouGov survey carried out for BHS, the idea of having this choice was universally popular.

AHDB Senior Export Manager, Susanna Morris said: “Britain is a unique and fortunate position to have so many breeds of sheep meat that offer a variety of flavours to suit every palate. We were delighted to host five of America’s most respected meat importers, who were given the opportunity to sample some of our native breeds for themselves. The feedback we received was very positive, with our US visitors praising the great taste of sheep meat from the UK, as well as being rightly impressed with the rich history of farming in the UK.”