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Like jerky, but better.
Chief was born from frustration. We love jerky, but finding jerky that's low in sugar and without nasty preservatives is tough. Speaking of tough, most jerky is also as tough as an old boot because it's essentially cooked at low temperatures over a number of hours. Our beef bars, on the other hand, are slow dried over days which makes it much more tender and easy to eat. We avoid any sugary marinades to keep the sugar content very low, and we avoid all the usual nasty preservatives usually found in dried and cured meats which you don't need with modern packaging unless you're trying to significantly extend the shelf life. Extended shelf life makes life easier for the manufacturer, but isn't very good for your gut health. We still manage to get a very respectable 12 months of shelf life from our beef bars thanks to modern packaging technology. They're a clean and healthy snack you can enjoy daily.
What do Chief Beef Bars taste like?
Frequently Asked Questions
About Chief Beef BarsEveryone asks us this and the best description we've heard is it's like a roast! If you like meat, you'll love these savoury bars (and our biltong too).
All our meat is 100% organic, grass-fed, grass-finished, added hormone free, antibiotic free and ethically raised beef. We use brisket and topside sourced from family owned organic farms in QLD, Australia where cattle forage freely all year round.
It’s important to recognise that every time we cook food we “process” it. A whole food product is defined as “a food that has been processed or refined as little as possible and is free from additives or other artificial substances”. Our products are whole foods, not “processed meats”, because they’re made with high quality meat, with a few herbs and natural ingredients. They’re dried using a traditional process (which is healthier than cooking it at high temperature) without the ingredients found in “processed meats”.
When referring to "processed meats" what the experts are talking about are sausages, bacon, deli meats, canned meats and dried meats that contain harmful vegetable oils, too much salt, added nitrites and nitrates and other harmful additives.
This is a quote from one of advisors, Dr Naras Lapsys:
"I for one, would find it very difficult to ever categorise the meat sourced in Chief as 'processed meat'. It just is not. The meat is grass fed and cured without using any harmful nitrates or other potentially toxic chemicals. Furthermore, the curing process does not involve cooking the meat at high temperatures, a process that has been well established as producing very toxic products called advanced glycation end products or AGEs. So processed meat, it is not."
If you'd like to delve deeper, please read this article.
There's about 500mg of sea salt per bar, a twist of a salt shaker. They’re lower in salt than most dried meat products, and it’s important to remember beef has natural levels of salt which are effectively doubled when you dry it (i.e. take out the water).
If your Dr has told you to limit salt due to hypertension, then you should probably avoid these. It’s important to understand, though, that hypertension is a metabolic problem causing salt retention, not a salt intake problem. Ultra processed foods are the root of metabolic problems. These bars are minimally processed and free from all the ingredients that make other foods “ultra processed”.
For those not suffering from hypertension, salt has had a bit of an unfair bad rap and recent science is calling this into question. Here’s a good book on the topic.
Or for a shorter read, our Chief Nutritionist has written about salt here.
Our beef range is designed for those looking for a high quality protein source on the move, but they're also a brilliant post workout recovery snack and great for those who just want a guilt free, savoury snack.
Yes! Our kids love the non chilli options which are perfect for kids and a great way to get some high quality protein into their diet. We have many customers tell us it's the only solid food they can get their kids to eat!
You should always check with your doctor. Some may warn you off dried meat during pregnancy because it's not cooked but there is nothing in our products that you would need to worry about while breastfeeding. They are very safe and in our personal experience we've found them to be great for pregnancy and breast feeding. In fact, high quality organic grass-fed beef is a fantastic supplement for mums who are growing human beings (and an important source of iron).
Meat is a staple of a keto diet but it’ll depend on what else you’re eating.
Our collagen bars are even more keto friendly as they’re high in good fats from nuts and MCT.
We can't give you that advice so you need to speak with your dietitian but we have had feedback from dietitians that all our products are suitable for diabetics.
No, they're made from real beef, not a plant based meat. We would highly recommend avoiding plant based meats which are ultra processed foods made with vegetable and seed oils.
The beef we use is Halal certified but our manufacturing is not Kosher or Halal certified yet. We are working on Halal certification as we already export other products to the Middle East.
The beef bars will last on the shelf for up to 12 months without refrigeration. The date on the product is a best before date, not an expiry date, which means it's a question of taste after that date. If you want them to last longer, they can be refrigerated or frozen.
Refrigerate once opened and consume within 3 days.