OUR STORY
This is the story of the creation of liver-based dietary supplements under the banner of Grassland Nutrition.
Having grown up in Denmark, where the fried liver is regularly on the menu and liver pâté is regarded as a national dish, it didn’t take much imagination to see that Australia had a highly valuable resource, which wasn’t being utilised to its full potential.
OUR HOMEMADE LIVER PÂTÉ BUSINESS
In 1982, the year myself, my wife Inger and our children Jens and Olaf arrived in Australia, the liver was not something most people would eat, dogs might be fed some if they were lucky.
We successfully tested the market for our homemade beef liver pâté, but because of other commitments, we were farmers, we did not continue at the time.
In 2015, after we sold our farm in NSW and moved to South Australia, being ‘pensioners’ in the true sense of the word did not suit us, so we looked for a new challenge, and wanted to test the market with our liver pâté once again.
We obtained council permission to make the pâté in our home kitchen and sold it at the local farmers market and in some local shops.
We wanted to know where the liver came from, so we made arrangements with some good friends from our time as beef cattle farmers.
Our friends were selling their own meat at the Farmers Market but didn’t use the liver, so every second week I would go to the abattoir and pick up the liver myself.
We sold everything we made from our kitchen, so at the end of 2016, we had reached a crossroads. Our goal was to make our pâté available to the masses as an everyday sandwich spread, but in order to do this, a much bigger investment would be required. I travelled to Denmark in order to inspect factories and talk to those who produced pâté in huge volumes.
MAKING LIVER INTO A POWDER
After returning to Australia I realised our product would need to be kept refrigerated all the time, so it wasn’t the right time to go any further, but it still hasn’t been forgotten…
At the same time, my mind never seemed to stand still, I was still looking for a way to utilise “all that liver”, which I knew by now had so many health benefits[1] – and bingo, why not dry it and turn it into a powder!
At first, I didn’t know that liver powder had actually been on the market for many years, but it was sort of a forgotten product.
I searched liver powder capsules online and found very few brands; from Argentina and a couple from New Zealand, but zero from Australia. What a waste!
It seemed to me that the product could be on the rise again, so I thought; why not use Australia’s ‘clean and green’ reputation to market an Australian made beef liver powder?
CREATING AN ORGANIC PREMIUM PRODUCT
From the beginning, we wanted to pioneer a premium product. There was no point in us running behind somebody else and doing the same.
First, it had to be an organically sourced product, (not simply converted to organic) but truly organic – Biodynamic.
From when we were beef farmers in Queensland we knew that farmers in the ‘Channel Country’ (an oasis in the heart of Australia, thousands of kilometres from dense population, where cows roam free and the beef is the purest)
In the early 1990’s formed OBE Organic and have subsequently successfully marketed its organic beef worldwide. We contacted OBE Organic and shared our beef liver vision, and from there we struck up a very positive relationship. And this is significant in our story – as Grassland Nutrition sources its premium beef liver from OBE Organic and the product range has grown through this relationship.
HOW TO PRESERVE THE NUTRIENTS
We decided to outsource the different steps of production and first of all, we had to find somebody that could dry the liver to our specifications.
We found that, even at a so-called ‘low drying temperature’, the liver would be pasteurised at a temperature of 82 degrees celsius – for so-called safety.
What about our premium product? Not many vitamins would be left in that process, and we didn’t just want to sell “sawdust”.
We had to find somebody who could ‘freeze dry’ the liver, a process that allows the preservation of all nutrients. Nobody on mainland Australia could do it, only one Freeze Drier in Tasmania had the expertise to do this.
WHY KELP WAS ADDED
The main features of the beef liver are the different vitamins and minerals from A–Z, together in one package.
With well-documented vitamin B12 deficiencies throughout the world, making beef liver powder available could definitely have a positive impact.
We then understood that iodine was equally deficient in many populations, so we thought why not make a blended product, but it still had to be natural and organically sourced.
We found that kelp could be the source, but it had to contain the right amount of iodine (around the world there are vast differences in iodine and pollution levels needed to be considered).
It turned out that the Freeze Drier in Tasmania could lead us in the right direction.
In Tasmania, we met the certified organic kelp harvester Stafford Heres of ‘Marrawah Gold’[1] who was able to deliver the kelp we needed. It comes from the clean wild waters of the North West coast of Tasmania, where the air in this area is tested to be the cleanest in the world[2]. The kelp is sustainably harvested – only 1% of kelp that comes ashore naturally is collected. The kelp is tested and is free from inorganic arsenic and radiation.
The Freeze Drier, at The Forager Food Co, in Tasmania now works with us to dry liver and other organ meats from OBE Organic and kelp from Tasmania.
TODAY AND INTO THE FUTURE
Grassland Nutrition products now include a variety of capsule-based supplements, freeze-dried organ snacks, liver powder and beef suet. We actively seek feedback from our customers to ensure the best experience possible. We want you to feel good, be happy and live longer.
Try our beef liver kelp capsules and experience a distinct shift in your energy levels.
