5 September 2012 Last updated at 01:54 By Michelle Warwicker Reporter, BBC Food

A new DNA test has been developed to allow retailers to authenticate Aberdeen-Angus beef, in a bid to protect its name and heritage.

"If you get a bright red chunk of beef, it may well look nice in a polystyrene tray, but it certainly won't eat very well," says Aberdeen-Angus breeder Geordie Soutar.

"But if you get one with a little bit of white fat round it and speckles through it, it will cook and eat sublimely."

The original Aberdeen-Angus was first bred in the early 19th Century in northeast Scotland, but now the cattle are bred in South America, Canada, the US and South Africa.

Now most Aberdeen-Angus cattle are cross-bred, and the amount of pure-bred Aberdeen-Angus beef on the market "is very very small", says Ron McHattie, chief executive of The Aberdeen-Angus Cattle Society.

This means breeders are keen to ensure no impostors lacking in fat and flavour sully Aberdeen Angus beef's reputation, because premium beef demands premium prices.

Waitrose sells Aberdeen-Angus beef sirloin steak for 24 per kg (6.00 per 250g pack), while the MacDonalds Brothers butchers in Perthshire, which is supplied by Geordie Soutar, charges 23.08 per kg of Aberdeen-Angus sirloin steak.

However cut-price chain Aldi recently introduced a range of "certified" Aberdeen-Angus beef, setting the cost of sirloin steak at 17.58 per kg (3.99 per 227g pack).

To ensure that such beef is legitimate, a DNA test has been developed for The Aberdeen-Angus Cattle Society by IdentiGEN, a company that provides DNA technology to the food industry.

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Protecting prime cuts