The Intercollegiate Meat Judging Competition (Australian ICMJ) was held at Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, Australia from July 4 to 8 with the participation of 160 university students who major in livestock/meat science and coaches from five countries (10 universities in Australia and national teams from the United States, South Korea, Indonesia and Japan).
The Japanese national team was comprised of five higher ranking winners at the 9th Japan Intercollegiate Meat Judging Competition in March 2017 (Yumeho Nakanishi from Hokkaido University, Mariko Shimizu from OUAVM, Daiki Matsuoka from OUAVM, Yako Goto from OUAVM and Minori Ozawa from Azabu University) and Tatsuki Kamata as the coach from a Graduate School of Hokkaido University.
English was used as the official language in the competition, and participants competed in the Beef, Pork, Lamb, and Retail and Primal ID categories as well as in the General category (the total of the results in the four categories). The standards for meat quality judging in the competition differ greatly from Japanese standards, so the Japanese national team faced a major challenge but still ended up winning in the Retail and Primal ID category.
From upper left: Minori Ozawa, Yako Goto, Yumeho Nakanishi, Mariko Shimizu, Daiki Matsuoka
From lower left: Tatsuki Kamata, Peter McGilchrist (Australian ICMJ President, University of New England), Yasunori Nagayama (Hokubee Australia) (honorifics omitted)
