The Australian Beef Association chided the New South Wales government on its apparent soft stand in labelling disputes with the country's supermarkets as it urged the state to implement much stricter regulations in its beef labelling management.

Association director John Carter cited as an example current government regulations which label beef culled from old cattle as 'budget', adding that many consumers were not aware that such low quality meat requires more time to cook.

Mr Carter said that a proposal to revise the label into 'low grade' was dumped with the government instead opting to call the meat as mere 'economy', which he criticised as a step backward of 50 years from the rest of the world.

In contrast, he said that countries like the United States, Canada, Japan and South Korea are now implementing meat grading systems "where the consumers knows and pays more for the really good beef from the younger cattle that have been well finished."

Mr Carter lamented that the state's decision to swing the label from 'budget' to 'economy' was a clear step that veered away from what the rest of the world had already achieved as he stressed that "it's just playing with silly words and they're just not prepared to bite the bullet."

NSW Primary Industries Minister Steve Whan was unreachable when sought for comments but a spokesman maintained that the ministry is already studying the matter and is scheduled to release the new labelling regulations by next week.