Top butchers prepare for 'Olympics of Meat'

Some of the best butchers in the UK are training at a college in East Sussex in preparation for an international butchery competition.

The World Butchers' Challenge, nicknamed the "Olympics of Meat", sees teams create a display of their craft in three and a half hours.

All the meat is donated to local food banks as even the dress rehearsals see a huge quantity of meat being butchered, organisers said.

With the competition in Paris less than a month away, Team GB has been ramping up its practice efforts at Plumpton College in the hope of winning a medal.

Captain Ben Tindale said: "For us, it's a chance to promote our industry at the highest level, and to promote the UK and the UK meat industry to the world."

Vice-captain Elsie Yardley added that there was "no buzz like it".

Plumpton College has some of the best butchery facilities in the UK, which Team GB has been using for training for more than a year.

Principal Jeremy Kerswell said the institution had invested heavily in its butchery facilities in recent years for its apprentices.

"We've been so pleased to host Team GB because we've seen massive growth in our apprenticeship programmes over the last few years, and this provides such great inspiration for our students, showing them how in demand those skills are," he said.

Team GB will also be represented in the competition's Young Butcher section by Kirsty Neil.

"It's about using the whole animal, and it's about knowing what you're doing the whole way through so that everything is done with respect," she said.

The World Butchers' Challenge is to take place on 30 and 31 March.

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