Meat snacks should be one of the simplest healthy snacks on the planet.
Start with good-quality beef, add a little seasoning, remove some moisture and you have a convenient, high-protein snack made from real food.
Unfortunately, that's not always what you get.
Walk through the jerky section of an Australian supermarket and you'll find products containing sugar, dextrose, maltodextrin, soy protein, flavourings, smoke flavour, nasty preservatives and other highly processed ingredients.
Then there's the other problem: texture.
Traditional jerky can be extremely tough. Some biltong can be fatty, greasy or full of gristle. And some softer supermarket jerky achieves that texture by retaining more moisture and adding significant amounts of sugar.
So what should you actually buy?
We compared some of Australia's biggest and best-known meat snack brands across beef quality, ingredients, sugar, texture and overall eating experience.
Our bias is pretty simple: we think a meat snack should be mostly meat. We favour Australian grass-fed beef, short ingredient lists, minimal sugar, no unnecessary preservatives and a texture that's tender enough to enjoy without turning the snack into something greasy or mushy.
Summary
| Brand | Style | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chief Beef Bars | Style Slow-dried beef bar | Pros Organic grass-fed Australian beef, low sugar, no nasty preservatives, high protein, tender and easy to eat (a one handed snack which can be very handy when your hands are dirty or you're driving) | ConsCosts a little more than mass-produced supermarket jerky |
| Chief Biltong | Style Air-dried steak | Pros Organic grass-fed Australian beef, very simple ingredients, low sugar, tender without being excessively fatty or greasy | Cons People who specifically love very fatty traditional biltong may prefer a fattier cut |
| Chief Beef Sticks | Style Fermented beef stick | Pros Organic grass-fed Australian beef, low sugar, clean ingredients, no nasty preservatives, very convenient and easy to chew. Also a one handed snack. | Cons Less protein per individual snack than a full 40g Beef Bar |
| KOOEE! Beef Jerky | Style Jerky | Pros Australian organic grass-fed beef, very clean ingredient list, high protein and relatively low sugar | Cons One of the strongest competitors nutritionally. No longer independently owned: KOOEE was acquired by Jack Link's Australian arm in 2025 |
| KOOEE! Beef Sticks | Style Fermented beef stick | Pros 94% Australian organic grass-fed beef, very low sugar, clean formulation, no conventional nitrite preservative | Cons Very strong product nutritionally; the main distinction versus Chief is ownership, with KOOEE now part of US meat-snack company Jack Link's |
| Barbell Foods | Style Biltong | Pros Outstandingly simple ingredients, organic grass-fed beef, zero sugar, traditionally air dried | Cons The naturally fatty style won't suit everyone; some customer feedback mentions tough pieces, fat and gristle |
| The Jerky Co | Style Jerky + biltong | Pros Australian MSA-grade beef, huge flavour range and some very loyal customers | Cons Independent reviews are mixed, including recurring complaints about salty/tough product, gristle and biltong spoilage or mould |
| The Original Beef Chief | Style Jerky + biltong | Pros Australian grass-fed beef, very high protein, generally low sugar and an enormous flavour range | Cons Intentionally tough, old-school chew; some flavours have much longer ingredient lists and the Original uses potassium sorbate |
| Jim's Jerky | Style Jerky | Pros Long-running Australian family business with a loyal following | Cons A small independent review sample includes complaints about very dry or rubbery texture, weak flavour and price |
| Local Legends | Style Jerky + biltong | Pros Australian beef, widely available, soft texture and convenient supermarket option | Cons Some Original jerky listings include sugar, dextrose, maltodextrin, soy protein and preservative; much more formulated than the cleanest options |
| Jack Link's Beef Jerky | Style Jerky | Pros Grass-fed beef, widely available, soft and easy to eat, consistent flavour | Cons Original contains 21.6g sugar per 100g plus soy protein and flavourings; much more processed and sugary than the cleanest options |
| Jack Link's Beef Steak Bars | Style Beef bar | Pros NZ grass-fed beef, tender, convenient one-handed format and around 7.5–7.7g protein per 25g bar | Cons Surprisingly high sugar: around 27.8g per 100g. Only 85% beef, with sugar first in the seasoning plus soy protein and flavourings |
| Jack Link's Beef Sticks | Style Beef stick | Pros Grass-fed NZ beef, convenient, easy to eat and the Original is relatively low sugar | Cons Original is only 88% beef and contains dextrose, maltodextrin, soy protein, smoke flavour, preservative 250 and a coloured casing. Some flavoured sticks are much higher in sugar |
Jerky vs biltong vs beef bars vs beef sticks: what's the difference?
Before comparing brands, it's worth understanding that these products aren't all the same.
Jerky
Jerky is generally made by slicing beef relatively thinly, marinating it and drying or cooking it until much of the moisture has been removed.
Good jerky can be delicious, but the traditional texture is deliberately chewy. Mass-produced versions often use sugar, flavour systems and other ingredients to create a softer, sweeter product.
Biltong
Biltong comes from Southern Africa and is usually made by seasoning thicker pieces of beef before slowly air drying them and slicing them afterwards.
That generally produces a more tender texture than traditional jerky.
The amount of fat left on the meat also makes a huge difference. Some people adore fatty biltong. Others find it greasy, gristly or simply too rich.
Beef bars
A beef bar takes the convenience of a protein bar and makes it from actual beef.
Chief's Beef Bars are made using organic grass-fed Australian beef and slowly dried to create something significantly more tender and convenient to eat than traditional jerky.
You can hold one in one hand, eat it without tearing strips apart with your teeth, and get a substantial serve of real-food protein without a sugary marinade.
Jack Link's now also sells a Beef Steak Bar in Australia. It's similarly convenient and tender, but the formulation is very different: its Peppered and Teriyaki bars contain only 85% beef and around 27.8g sugar per 100g. For us, that undermines much of the appeal of choosing a beef snack in the first place.
Beef sticks
Beef sticks are another very convenient format, but quality varies enormously.
At their best they're essentially portable fermented meat. At their worst they're closer to highly processed sausage sticks with long ingredient lists.
Chief and KOOEE are good examples of how clean a beef stick can be. Both use Australian organic grass-fed beef and simple formulations.
Jack Link's also sells beef sticks in Australia, but its Original uses 88% beef alongside ingredients including dextrose, maltodextrin, soy protein, flavourings, smoke flavour, preservative 250 and a coloured casing.
Chief's version uses organic grass-fed Australian beef and a natural fermentation process to create a tender stick that's particularly easy to eat.
What should you look for in a healthy meat snack?
1. Start with the beef
If beef is the main ingredient, its quality matters.
Our preference is Australian, organic, grass-fed and grass-finished beef.
Chief uses organic grass-fed Australian beef across its Beef Bars, Biltong and Beef Sticks.
KOOEE and Barbell also deserve credit here. Both have put serious emphasis on grass-fed beef and clean sourcing, which is why we consider them genuine high-quality competitors rather than lumping every non-Chief product into the same basket.
Jack Link's Australian range now promotes grass-fed beef too, but much of its Beef Stick and Steak Bar range uses New Zealand beef rather than Australian organic beef, and the ingredient lists are substantially more formulated.
2. Read the ingredient list
Meat snacks don't need to contain 15 ingredients.
Some of the simplest products in this comparison are essentially beef, vinegar, salt and spices.
At the other end of the spectrum you'll find products using combinations of sugar, dextrose, maltodextrin, soy protein, flavourings, smoke flavour and preservatives.
Those ingredients don't automatically make a product unhealthy. But when you're buying dried meat, it's reasonable to ask why the ingredient list needs to look more like a formulated snack food than seasoned beef.
3. Check the sugar
This is where meat snacks can really surprise people.
Beef contains virtually no carbohydrate naturally, yet some supermarket jerky contains more than 20g of sugar per 100g.
And it's not just jerky. Jack Link's Beef Steak Bars currently contain around 27.8g sugar per 100g — meaning more than a quarter of the product by weight is sugar.
That's not a small amount for something people often buy specifically because they think they're choosing a healthy high-protein snack.
Chief deliberately keeps sugar very low across its meat snack range.
4. Texture matters
Ingredients aren't everything if eating the product feels like a workout for your jaw.
Traditional jerky lovers may actively want something hard and chewy. There's nothing wrong with that.
But for an everyday snack — particularly for kids, older customers or anyone who simply doesn't want to spend five minutes chewing one piece — tenderness matters.
Chief has deliberately designed its Beef Bars, Biltong and Beef Sticks to be tender and easy to eat without relying on a large amount of sugar to create a soft texture.
5. Watch the fat — depending on what you like
Fat isn't inherently a bad thing, particularly when it's the natural fat that comes with beef.
But there's a difference between a juicy piece of steak and opening a bag of biltong that feels excessively oily or contains large pieces of chewy fat and gristle.
Traditional fatty biltong deliberately retains more fat, and some people absolutely love it.
For us, the sweet spot is tender and satisfying without being overly fatty or greasy.
Our pick of Australia's best meat snacks
1. Chief Beef Bars
Pros: Organic grass-fed Australian beef, high protein, low sugar, clean ingredients, no nasty preservatives, tender and extremely convenient.
Cons: More expensive than mass-produced supermarket jerky.
If we had to choose one all-round meat snack, this is it.
Chief Beef Bars start with organic, grass-fed, grass-finished Australian beef. More than 80g of raw beef goes into each 40g bar, with moisture removed during the slow-drying process.
The big difference is texture.
Traditional jerky can be great, but it's usually sliced into pieces that require a serious chew. Chief Beef Bars are designed to be tender enough to bite straight through.
They're also low in sugar and avoid the preservatives and highly formulated ingredient systems common in mass-market jerky.
The result is much closer to carrying a piece of steak in your pocket than eating a conventional packaged snack.
2. Chief Biltong
Pros: Organic grass-fed Australian beef, very simple ingredients, low sugar, naturally air dried and tender without being excessively fatty.
Cons: If you specifically want thick pieces of traditional fatty biltong, another style may suit you better.
If you like the idea of jerky but find it too tough, biltong is probably where we'd send you next.
Chief slowly air dries organic grass-fed Australian beef to retain a softer, more tender texture.
It has the savoury satisfaction you want from dried beef without needing a highly sweetened marinade, and we deliberately don't make it excessively fatty or greasy.
That makes it particularly easy to snack on straight from the bag.
3. Chief Beef Sticks
Pros: Organic grass-fed Australian beef, extremely clean formulation, low sugar, portable and very easy to chew.
Cons: Smaller individual protein serve than a full Beef Bar.
Beef sticks might be the most convenient meat snack of all.
Chief's are made from organic grass-fed Australian beef with a tiny amount of honey used to help start the natural fermentation process.
The fermentation helps create a tender texture, so they don't have the rubbery or greasy character you can get from some conventional meat sticks.
They're particularly handy for lunchboxes, travelling, driving or keeping in your bag when you want actual food rather than another sweet protein bar.
4. KOOEE! Beef Jerky
Pros: Australian organic grass-fed beef, high protein and one of the cleanest jerky formulations in the category.
Cons: It's hard to criticise the product nutritionally. The major change is ownership: KOOEE is no longer an independent Australian meat-snack company.
KOOEE's jerky is one of the products we genuinely rate.
Its Sea Salt Beef Jerky is made from Australian organic grass-fed beef with organic coconut aminos, organic apple cider, sea salt, black pepper, beetroot powder and culture.
A 30g serve provides around 14.8g protein and 2.7g sugar.
That's a very good result by any reasonable standard and dramatically cleaner than most mass-market jerky.
The interesting distinction is now the company behind it.
KOOEE was founded in Tasmania, but in 2025 it was acquired by Link Foods Australia, the Australian arm of US meat-snack giant Jack Link's.
That doesn't suddenly make KOOEE a bad product. From a pure ingredient perspective, it remains one of Chief's strongest competitors.
For us, Chief's advantage is the broader range of formats and our particular focus on making the eating experience exceptionally tender and convenient.
5. KOOEE! Beef Sticks
Pros: 94% Australian organic grass-fed beef, exceptionally low sugar and an impressively clean ingredient list.
Cons: Very little to criticise nutritionally; like KOOEE's jerky, it's now owned by Jack Link's rather than an independent Australian company.
KOOEE's Beef Sticks deserve to be assessed separately from its jerky because they're genuinely one of the strongest beef-stick products available in Australia.
The Sea Salt version contains 94% Australian organic grass-fed beef, sea salt, less than 1% honey, black pepper, cultured swiss chard powder, beetroot powder, acerola cherry juice powder, rosemary extract, culture and an edible collagen casing.
Each 25g stick provides around 6.9g protein with just 0.2g sugar.
That's an excellent formulation and much closer to Chief's ingredient philosophy than conventional supermarket meat sticks.
If you're comparing Chief and KOOEE purely on ingredients, both are strong choices. Chief's case is its organic Australian beef, similarly clean formulation and our focus on a tender, non-greasy eating experience — while KOOEE is now part of the much larger US-owned Jack Link's group.
6. Barbell Foods Biltong
Pros: Possibly the simplest ingredient list in the comparison: organic grass-fed beef, vinegar and seasoning. Zero sugar.
Cons: It's a more traditionally fatty biltong. Some independent feedback has complained about tough pieces, fat and gristle.
Barbell is another product we're not going to pretend is bad just because they're a competitor.
The Canberra-founded company was started by brothers Luke and Rory Rathbone with friends Matt Laing and Tom Hutchison after the brothers grew up eating South African biltong.
Its Sea Salt Biltong is about as clean as packaged meat snacks get: organic grass-fed and finished beef, vinegar and sea salt.
It also contains virtually no sugar.
The main difference versus Chief is style.
Barbell intentionally keeps the natural fat on its biltong for flavour and texture. If you love fatty traditional biltong, that's a positive.
If you prefer something leaner, more consistently tender and less likely to feel fatty or greasy, we'd lean toward Chief.
There isn't enough independent review data to make sweeping claims about Barbell's texture, but the limited negative feedback we found included complaints about a tough chew and pieces containing substantial fat or gristle.
7. The Jerky Co
Pros: 100% Australian MSA-grade beef, large flavour range and plenty of customers who genuinely love the product.
Cons: Independent reviews are much more mixed than we'd like to see, particularly around biltong freshness, mould, saltiness, gristle and consistency.
The Jerky Co was founded in Perth in 2015 by three friends, Brandon, Claudio and Dino, drawing on their South African family roots.
There is plenty to like about the underlying product.
The company uses Australian MSA-grade beef, and its Traditional Jerky is an unusually straightforward formulation: 98% premium beef, soy sauce, vinegar, sugar and spices.
It also packs an impressive 54.8g protein per 100g.
The problem is consistency in independent customer feedback.
At the time we reviewed it, The Jerky Co had a 2.7/5 rating from 61 reviews on ProductReview.com.au.
Some reviewers absolutely rave about the flavour and texture. But there are also repeated complaints about biltong arriving mouldy or spoiling quickly, along with reports of salty or bland batches, gristle and inconsistent texture.
That doesn't mean you'll have a bad experience. It does make us more cautious than we would be with a product showing consistently strong independent feedback.
8. The Original Beef Chief
Pros: Australian grass-fed beef, very high protein, generally low sugar and a staggering number of flavours.
Cons: The jerky is intentionally very tough, and some flavoured products have substantially longer ingredient lists than the cleanest products in this comparison.
First, an important clarification: The Original Beef Chief is not Chief Nutrition. They're completely separate Australian businesses. (Chief Nutrition started operating and registered a trademark a few years prior to The Original Beef Chief, so we're not sure how their trademark was approved, it's pretty confusing.)
The Original Beef Chief is an Australian jerky specialist based in Tocumwal, NSW, and has built a very loyal following.
Their Original Beef Jerky uses Australian grass-fed beef and provides an impressive 51g protein per 100g with only around 2g sugar.
That's materially better nutritionally than most mainstream supermarket jerky.
But this is proper old-school jerky. The brand itself proudly describes it as a tough chew.
If that's what you love, great. If you're looking for a tender snack that's easy for almost anyone to eat, Chief's Beef Bars or Biltong are much more approachable.
It's also worth checking individual flavours rather than assuming the whole range is equally simple. The Original flavour has a relatively short formulation but includes potassium sorbate, while some of the more heavily seasoned flavours contain thickeners, maltodextrin, colours, flavour systems and other added ingredients.
9. Jim's Jerky
Pros: A genuine Australian family business with a long history and customers who love the traditional jerky style.
Cons: Independent review data is limited and old, but includes complaints about overly dry or rubbery texture, weak flavour and relatively high prices.
Jim's Jerky is one of the longer-established Australian players.
The Toowoomba business was founded by Jim and Cathie Tanner and remains a family business, with their daughter Emily Pullen serving as CEO (we know them, they're lovely people).
It has been making jerky for more than two decades and has earned a loyal customer base.
Independent review data is too limited for us to draw strong conclusions — ProductReview only had a handful of reviews when we checked — but several of the negative reviews complained about jerky being extremely dry, rubbery or difficult to chew.
That's a recurring trade-off with traditional jerky and one of the reasons we developed Chief's Beef Bars differently.
10. Local Legends
Pros: Australian beef, widely available in Coles and Woolworths and generally regarded as relatively soft and easy to chew.
Cons: The Original jerky is considerably more formulated than the cleanest options, with retailer ingredient listings including sugar, dextrose, maltodextrin, soy protein and preservative.
Local Legends is one of the easier products to find in Australian supermarkets.
Consumer reviews frequently praise its softer texture, which makes it more approachable than very traditional jerky.
But this is where we think flipping the packet over matters.
One current Australian retailer listing for Original Beef Jerky includes beef, sugar, dextrose, maltodextrin, soy protein, flavour and preservative 250, among other ingredients.
Retailer ingredient listings do vary, so always check the actual packet you're buying.
Either way, it's a very different proposition from taking organic grass-fed beef and keeping the ingredient list as simple as possible.
11. Jack Link's Original Beef Jerky
Pros: Grass-fed beef, extremely widely available, consistent and easy to eat. Some consumers genuinely prefer its softer, sweeter style.
Cons: The standard Original contains 21.6g sugar per 100g, along with soy protein and flavourings. Much less protein-dense than drier premium jerky.
Jack Link's is the giant of the category.
It's a US company headquartered in Wisconsin and owned by the Link family. Its Australian-market Original Beef Jerky is made using grass-fed beef.
The company became even more relevant to this comparison when its Australian arm acquired KOOEE in 2025.
Jack Link's Original is undeniably popular, and taste is subjective.
Nutritionally, however, the Australian version is hard for us to recommend as an everyday health snack when there are much cleaner options available.
The standard Original provides 34g protein but 21.6g sugar per 100g.
Its ingredients include beef, sugar, salt, yeast extract, onion powder, flavourings, soy protein, natural flavours and smoke flavour.
For comparison, beef itself naturally contains essentially no sugar.
Based on the standard Original product, we'd choose Chief, KOOEE, Barbell or several of the Australian specialist jerky brands well before it if ingredient quality and low sugar are your priorities.
12. Jack Link's Beef Steak Bars
Pros: Grass-fed New Zealand beef, tender texture and a genuinely convenient one-handed format.
Cons: Very high sugar for a beef snack — around 27.8g per 100g — and only 85% beef.
Jack Link's Beef Steak Bars are the closest direct format competitor to Chief Beef Bars, so they're worth looking at separately from the company's jerky.
The range currently includes Peppered and Teriyaki 25g Steak Bars.
They're made with grass-fed New Zealand beef and provide around 7.5–7.7g protein per 25g bar.
The convenience and texture are real strengths. Like Chief Beef Bars, they're easy to hold in one hand and much easier to eat than tough strips of traditional jerky.
But the ingredient and nutrition panels tell a very different story.
The Peppered Steak Bar contains 85% beef, with a seasoning made from sugar, salt, yeast extract, onion powder, garlic powder, flavourings and spices. It also contains soy protein, celery powder and flavouring.
Most strikingly, it contains 7g sugar in a 25g bar — 27.8g sugar per 100g.
The Teriyaki version is similarly high at 27.8g sugar per 100g.
For us, that's difficult to justify in a meat snack when it's possible to make a tender beef bar that's both low in sugar and made from organic grass-fed Australian beef.
If you want the beef-bar format specifically, this is one of the clearest areas where we'd choose Chief.
13. Jack Link's Beef Sticks
Pros: Grass-fed New Zealand beef, portable, easy to eat and the Original version is relatively low in sugar.
Cons: A substantially more processed formulation than Chief or KOOEE, including dextrose, maltodextrin, soy protein, smoke flavour, preservative 250 and colours.
Jack Link's also sells a dedicated Beef Stick range in Australia, including Original, Smokey BBQ and Honey Soy.
The Original is the strongest option nutritionally.
It contains 88% grass-fed New Zealand beef, provides 7g protein per 25g stick and contains less than 1g sugar per serve.
So unlike Jack Link's Steak Bars and Original Jerky, sugar isn't the main issue here.
The difference is the ingredient list.
The Original Beef Stick seasoning contains dextrose, maltodextrin, yeast extract and flavourings, followed by soy protein, beef stock, smoke flavouring, preservative 250 and a casing containing added colours.
Some of the flavoured versions move further away from that relatively low-sugar profile. The Smokey BBQ Stick contains around 17g sugar per 100g, while Honey Soy contains around 16.8g per 100g.
So Jack Link's deserves credit for using grass-fed beef and for making a very convenient snack. But if ingredient simplicity matters, Chief and KOOEE show that you can make a low-sugar beef stick without needing that level of formulation.
So, what are the best meat snacks in Australia?
If your only priority is a traditional tough jerky chew, The Original Beef Chief makes some genuinely good low-sugar Australian jerky.
If you want traditional South African-style biltong with an exceptionally clean ingredient list, Barbell is excellent — particularly if you enjoy the natural fat left on the meat.
If you want organic grass-fed Australian beef and a very clean formulation, both KOOEE Jerky and KOOEE Beef Sticks are genuinely strong choices, despite KOOEE now being owned by Jack Link's.
If you want a huge range of jerky and biltong flavours, The Jerky Co has plenty of fans, although its mixed independent review record gives us some pause.
Jack Link's offers impressive convenience and grass-fed beef across much of its range, but the products need to be judged separately. Its Original Beef Stick is relatively low in sugar but highly formulated, while its Original Jerky and Beef Steak Bars contain surprisingly large amounts of sugar.
And if price and supermarket convenience are your biggest priorities, Local Legends and Jack Link's are easy to find.
The Verdict?
If you're looking for the best combination of beef quality, clean ingredients, low sugar, tenderness and everyday convenience, we'd choose Chief.
Across Beef Bars, Biltong and Beef Sticks, Chief starts with organic, grass-fed, grass-finished Australian beef and avoids the sugary marinades and unnecessary preservatives that are still common across the category.
Just as importantly, we've obsessed over texture.
We don't think a healthy meat snack should be so tough that your jaw hurts after eating it.
And we don't think making it tender should mean loading it with sugar or leaving you with fingers covered in beef fat.
Good beef. Simple ingredients. Low sugar. Tender enough to actually enjoy.
For us, that's what a meat snack should be.
