Many Australian restaurants serve Kangaroo meat. Kangaroo meat has been exported since 1959. Seventy percent of Kangaroo meat is exported, particularly to the European market: Germany and France.
In Australia, people eat kangaroo, the country's national animal, in kebabs, meatballs and more.
Australians have an ingrained reluctance to eat their national emblem, but a number of chefs are now championing kangaroo meat as a delicious - and environmentally friendly alternative to beef and pork.
Although Aboriginal people kill and eat kangaroos as part of their traditional diet, there are strict cultural protocols about how these practices are carried out.
In fact, kangaroo meat is widely available in most Australian supermarkets along with emu, crocodile, camel and other “game meats”. Kangaroo meat had been consumed by indigenous Australians for centuries, but it was only in the last few decades that it's been legalized for human consumption across Australia.
Kangaroo is a lean meat with less than 2% fat, making it a healthier red meat option. It is also high in protein, essential B vitamins, minerals such as zinc, iron and omega 3 fats and omega 6 fatty acids. Compared to beef, kangaroo contains double the amount of iron and triple that of chicken and pork.
Surveys on consumer attitudes to kangaroo meat have found just over half of Australians have ever tried it, and many people object to eating it due to concerns about hygiene, animal welfare, or because they think it's unhealthy.
Koalas, like the platypus and echidna, are a protected native Australian animal, and harming or killing them could bring you a hefty fine or time in jail. So no, you can't eat koalas.
No, it doesn't taste like chicken. But nor does it taste quite like steak. Kangaroo is a gamey meat, and some foodies even prefer it to lamb and steak for its tenderness and taste. It tends to be a stronger flavour than beef or lamb, and even though it is a very lean meat, it's not tough like venison can sometimes be.
Under this Act, it is illegal to 'harm' (defined as kill, injure or capture) a kangaroo or 'attempt to harm' (including hunt, pursue or use anything for the purpose of harming) a kangaroo without a licence. Read the Living with kangaroos brochure to learn more about kangaroos and how to avoid conflict with them.
K-ROO is produced by Australia s leading manufacturer of kangaroo meat, Macro Meats. Based in South Australia, we re a family-owned and operated business that have a long history of innovation and excellence and have been proudly supplying Australians with kangaroo meat for the past 30 years.
While kangaroo is more environmentally friendly than sheep or cattle, the long travel time from Australia to other countries ups the meat's carbon footprint. This long journey increases the cost of roo, making it much more expensive than meat farmed in Peru.
According to estimates, there are at least twice as many kangaroos in Australia as inhabitants – which would be a total of 50 million animals. While the country is certainly big enough, Australians' relationship with their national animal is one of the love-hate variety.
But some people can't get past the idea that kangaroos are cute. Australia is not the only country to eat its national emblem – elk is eaten in Sweden, carp in Japan – but for an increasingly urban population, it can be a hard sell.
This statistic makes the kangaroo the most hunted wild animal in the world. Unfortunately, Belgium is partly responsible for maintaining this commercial hunt, as it is the world's largest importer of kangaroo meat for human consumption.
JAPANESE diners are developing a taste for kangaroo, helping to drive demand for the Australian product across Asia. The world's largest premium kangaroo meat distributor has seen a 400 per cent increase in sales to Japan in the past year and is now sending about 50 tonnes there every month.
Kangaroo is a lean, dark-red game meat with a beefy flavor that is slightly sweet & smoky. It's a healthy, delicious beef alternative. All kangaroo is shot in the wild in Australia, then processed under USDA approved conditions before export.
Kangaroo meat is highly nutritious
With less than two per cent fat and being one of the highest protein sources in the meat section of the supermarket, kangaroo meat is one of the healthiest meat choices you can make.
In a lengthy thread on Reddit, a meat expert has explained why prices have soared from about $10 a kilo to close to $40 per kilo in some states. 'Kangaroo shooters rely on access to privately owned farms to cull and harvest kangaroos,' they explained.
When it came to cooking possum, the standard method was to bake it with sweet potatoes. Some commentators have described the dish as a substitution of the English roast with white potatoes. The possum was typically seasoned with red pepper, and it was said to taste like pork.
Emus and wombats are other possibilities, as they contain readily accessible meat and associated fat. Freshwater shellfish are another alternative, although salinity and the introduction of locks and weirs along our major rivers has altered the distribution of many of these molluscs.
Some Aboriginal groups in their home country, Australia, hunt platypuses for food. However, platypuses are protected worldwide, and eating one is highly illegal. Apart from the legal notions, most people refrain from consuming platypus meat as their venom might contain toxins not good for the body.
You see, Kangaroo are a Sacred Totem Animal to many of we Indigenous people. They are a Creator Spirit and The Dreaming of Country and holding Kangaroo as Totem means for many Indigenous people we never ate it, or eat it … ever.
In 1974 the (then) three commercially shot kangaroo species were listed as threatened on the US Endangered Species Act. [1] The US Fish and Wildlife Service banned the importation of those species in the same year.