When consumers, reality show contestants and even foodies think about quail meat, they may well think of a complex cooking process and fine dining in some of Australia's top restaurants.

Key points: A Tasmanian quail producer has shifted to mainly smoked and brined product rather than whole, uncooked birds, for cafe use

A Tasmanian quail producer has shifted to mainly smoked and brined product rather than whole, uncooked birds, for cafe use The producer wrote-off egg sales as the Tasmanian Government introduced egg-stamping legislation

The producer wrote-off egg sales as the Tasmanian Government introduced egg-stamping legislation The tracking allows potentially-contaminated eggs to be recalled, with a free hand-held stamp offered to small producers

But times are changing, as long-time Tasmanian quail producer Bruce Wiggins, can attest.

He has been in the quail game at Rannoch Farm near Nubeena on southern Tasmania's scenic Tasman Peninsula since 1979.

"Right at the start it was a marketing exercise to get people to eat quail. Australians didn't eat little birds," Mr Wiggins said.

"It was quite common in Europe, but it doesn't taste like chicken. There's nothing to compare it with."

So Mr Wiggins' business emphasis has shifted to mainly smoked and brined product rather than whole, uncooked birds.

"We're trying to target the cafes," he said.

"We've got something that's nice and quick. They can just take it out of the packet, put it on the cafe press, and have it out the door in less than 10 minutes.

"So fine dining's sort of starting to take a back seat."

Rannoch Farm supplies quail meat to eateries both interstate and locally.

From the time the eggs come out of the incubator — or 'Tardis', as Mr Wiggins calls it — to when the tiny chicks are placed in heated drawers, and then a series of feeding sheds where they can more than double in size in a matter of days, the birds' life cycle is about five weeks.

Quails more than double in size in a matter of days in the sheds at Rannoch Farm. ( ABC Rural: Peta Carlyon )

Mr Wiggins said his family business was well placed to adapt to changing markets, but the last year had been "very slow".

"We don't know why," he said.

"You can generally tell when there's a lot of tourists around.

"Christmas is our peak period, Easter is [also] usually a peak period, but the industry's been slow this year."

Tens of thousands of eggs composted

As well as the shift to an emphasis on pre-prepared cafe products, Mr Wiggins has also had to write off egg sales.

When quail egg demand was high he used to sell to restaurants, but Mr Wiggins said he had been forced to abort that part of his business when the Tasmanian Government introduced egg-stamping legislation.

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The task was designed to improve traceability in the event of outbreaks of food-borne illnesses such as Salmonella poisoning.

The Government said the measure, involving a six-digit code approved by Biosecurity Tasmania, would allow contaminated eggs to be recalled, and offered a free hand-held stamp to small egg producers.

But Mr Wiggins said the task was impossible.

"You can imagine what it would be like going through and individually stamping every egg," he said.

The Tasmanian Government has introduced legislation to track individual eggs and offered producers a small, manually-operated stamp. ( Supplied )

"We've had to throw out 10,000 eggs. There's nothing wrong with them. I can't even give them away. I'm not allowed to.

"They have to be stamped or composted … and that's the way it is."

Mr Wiggins said he had asked the Government for an exemption, to no avail.

"I can't see that changing," he said.

"I had somebody employed doing that, trained them, and they took them up to the restaurants, so he lost that part of his job.

"They make good scrambled eggs … but you can only eat so many."