Pearl Veal Story
In the beginning
Founded in 2020 by business partners Alan & Julia, Pearl Veal is a venture with a mission.
We set out to create a better purpose for non-replacement dairy calves. Collaborating with pioneering farmers and New Zealand’s finest chefs, we aim to showcase just how delicious properly raised rose veal really is.
In a world where milk means calves, we believe they deserve to flourish and have a good life.
We have partnered with dairy farmers who are committed to a better approach of managing their surplus dairy calves, who rear their calves for us on fresh whole cow’s milk and pasture until they reach 12 months – what they’ve been fed for millennia, the natural way, just as nature intended.
Everything we do is firstly aimed at allowing the calves to flourish and have good lives. Our focus is on an animal-centric approach, ensuring calves thrive with a balanced diet rich in protein, fat, minerals, and all the other essential nutrients and good stuff they need.
We genuinely believe that how we raise an animal, influences how it tastes. The Pearl Veal approach ensures product that is always rose-coloured, tender, lean, rich in iron and above all, exceptionally delicious!
We’ve named it Pearl Veal because it’s raised solely on milk and pasture. And like the transformation of grit into a pearl, a surplus calf becomes Pearl Veal - growing pearls from Pasture!
Our Way
At Pearl Veal, we are about partnerships, working with like-minded others dedicated to do dairy and meat better. We are grateful to be working with pioneering farmers, leading chefs, innovative processors, adaptive logistics providers, and skilled butchers. And now, we’re excited to bring Pearl Veal to your home, so you can enjoy it with your family and friends.
We believe in challenging today’s ‘normal’ in pursuit of better.
We create enduring, transparent partnerships that work for everyone.
We collectively do the responsible thing by our animals, our land, and our people.
We connect with and inspire the people who cook, eat or use our cared for veal products.
Animal Welfare
Pearl Veal Calves are all born on dairy farms. The ingredients that go into our veal are few and simple. Colostrum, plenty of fresh whole milk, a touch of hay, and ample pasture until they are weaned at 3 months and reach a weight of at least 100kg.
Our commitment to natural, healthy rearing extends to a diet free from antibiotics and growth promotants. We exclude grain, Palm Kernel Expeller (PKE), GMOs, or any other hard-to-pronounce ingredients from their diet.
After the calves are weaned from milk, they spend the following 7-9 months grazing on fresh pasture, reaching a weight of approximately 300kg during this period.
The Pearl Veal Footprint
Pearl Veal has a comparably low gross Greenhouse Gas Footprint among other red meats.
We asked AgResearch to complete a Life Cycle Assessment of Pearl Veal fed on whole fresh milk and pasture. Results revealed a remarkably low gross emission of 13.9kg of C0₂ per kilogram of product for Pearl Veal.
The assessment took into consideration all the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with growing the pasture, including fertilizer and fossil fuels. It also considered all the animal emissions of methane and nitrous oxide, as well as the processing and transportation emissions associated with delivering Pearl Veal to our customers.
Pearl Veal is committed to sustainability. We create this beautiful product from animals that would otherwise be considered waste in the dairy industry. Our approach is rooted in a ‘back to nature’ philosophy, emphasising efficiency and sustainability, resulting in an incredibly light footprint. Importantly, we achieve this without relying on offsetting, chemicals, or other interventions.
Packaging
In producing Pearl Veal, we are committed to sustainability and ethical farming. We strive to have as light a footprint as we possibly can in delivering our delicious veal to you, and this extends to the packaging solutions that we use to keep Pearl Veal cold on its way to your door. We searched far and wide for sustainable packaging for our meat boxes we sell on-line to our home customers. We use fully recyclable uncoated cardboard cartons. We then use two customized Woolpack liners from Planet Protector inside those cartons to provide a layer of insulation. The Woolpacks are reusable, biodegradable, and compostable. The soft plastic film is also recyclable, as is the plastic bag liner that goes inside the insulation layer to keep any moisture contained. In goes the vacuum-packed veal products together with a Thermogard gel pack which is completely reusable or can be drained safely in your sink with the soft plastic bag recycled. All of our packaging is made right here in New Zealand.
For our wholesale customers, we use minimal packaging – fully recyclable cardboard cartons and single plastic liners to contain any moisture.
The vacuum packaging around the meat itself is not readily recyclable because it will contain meat and fat residues, but is essential to ensure the veal is delivered to you in the best possible condition. We use bags of different thicknesses for different products to protect the meat safely, but also to minimize the amount of plastic used.