‘Quietly pulled’: Shoppers gutted as Woolworths discontinues a popular freezer staple
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There aren’t many workday lunches that cost $4.15 and take only three minutes and 25 seconds to cook, but the Mrs Mac’s Microwave Beef & Cheese Pie was one of the better ones.
Normally sold at Woolworths, this tasty treat is no more, having been abruptly discontinued.
Mrs Mac’s Microwave Beef & Cheese pies have been discontinued at Woolworths. Supplied/Jo Abi
A spokesperson confirmed the news, telling nine.com.au: “Aussies are the world’s foremost meat pie connoisseurs, which is why we regularly review our range to make sure it aligns with demand and regularly provides tasty new options.”
They added that while this specific Mrs Mac’s pie product has been discontinued, they continue to stock a wide variety of the brand’s products in the freezer aisle, including the Mrs Mac’s Microwave Famous Beef Pie, which has been discounted from $4.15 to $2.50 for a single pie – perhaps in an effort to lessen the blow.
Also on sale in the Mrs Mac’s range at Woolworths are microwaveable beef pasties, sausage rolls, and spinach and ricotta rolls.
The supermarket continues to stock several Mrs Mac’s products and pies. Jo Abi
But it was the unique combination of beef and cheese that made the discontinued pie flavour so popular and influenced other brands to follow suit – including National Pies’ viral Cheeseburger Pie, which is thankfully still on sale at Woolworths having been added to the lineup earlier this year.
Alarmingly, the Microwave Beef & Cheese Pie is also listed as “currently unavailable” on the Coles website, alongside the brand’s Microwaveable Beef Pastie. Nine.com.au has since been told Coles still stocks the product and this shortage is temporary.
We Aussies sure love our pies
We are a nation of pie eaters, making our way through an estimated 270 million meat pies every year, which works out to be roughly 10-12 per person per annum.
The Australian pie manufacturing and bakery market generates well over one billion pies annually, with beef remaining the highest-selling filling by far.
Aussies eat an estimated 270 million meat pies every year. Nine
Local bakeries across the country have been made famous by their meat pie creations, and many will soon be highlighted at The Official Great Aussie Pie Competition, which runs from which runs with the Fine Food trade show from August 31 to September 3 in Melbourne.
Some local bakery creations have even made their way into supermarkets, with customers keen to try all of the new and amazing flavours being offered.
Our pie-eating habits
One of Australia’s most successful bakery chains, Victorian bakehouse Ferguson Plarre’s, which has won many awards at the competition, sells over 25,500 meat pies each week.
The bakery recently shared some fun facts about their meat pie range to mark 125 years of operation, reporting more than 77 per cent of customers choose beef pies over any other option, although flavours such as Butter Chicken are increasingly giving beef a run for its money.
Victorian bakehouse Ferguson Plarre’s sells 25,500 pies each week. Ferguson Plarre’s
More than half of those surveyed by the bakery said they eat their pies by hand (56.2 per cent), with 37 admitting to using a knife and fork, which just seems unAustralian.
While almost half of those surveyed (46.09 per cent) put their sauce on top of the pie, nearly one in five (18.01 per cent) go without it, and an alarming 19.45 per cent of Australian pie eaters add sauce as they go to ensure there’s some in every bite.
Then there are the ‘lid lifters’ (14.23 per cent), who place their sauce underneath the pie pastry top.
