USDA Meat Grading - What They Mean and Which is Best
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We've all heard of meat grading. And we all love to get our hands on the best grade of beef (What wine goes well with beef??) available for that perfect balance of melted fat to lean meat, giving it that sweet tenderness and smooth flavor. But how exactly does the USDA grade beef? A lot of factors come into play from carcass weight to fat marbling and a couple more characteristics.
A Little History
The USDA or United States Department of Agriculture has been grading beef since 1927. It came about during an agricultural depression as a marketing tool when industrial farmers wanted to increase the demand for fattier meat from corn-fed cattle. It is a voluntary, subjective process where meat packagers pay to have their meat graded. The way they grade this beef depends on two important factors, 1. Age of the cattle at slaughter, determined by the vertebrae, and 2. the amount of fat marbling the cut bares, usually determined by the ribeye cut. Other factors that contribute to the overall grade of beef are diet and exercise of the cattle, age, as well as other lifestyle conditions, the aging of the beef, and storage.
Fat Marbling
Most of us know about fat marbling and how it contributes to the overall taste and texture of a cut of meat. Fat marbling, or intramuscular fat, are the white lines and grooves within the lean sections of meat. Since this fat melts (or renders) when heated it makes the cut nice and moist. But remember: good marbling doesn't always account for great-tasting beef.
Popular Beef Breeds in America
Since 1927, for 30 years the USDA grading system was based on two different cattle breeds. Angus, commonly black and muscular, which to this day, is the most popular beef in the US, and Hereford, classically tan and white, which follows at a close 3rd. Both English breeds are high in fat. However in the '60s and '70s, Americans started to prefer leaner beef, so in 1965 and 1975 the USDA changed reduced its marbling requirements for its highest grade.
Most beef in the US comes from 15-24-month-old cattle that is grain-finished. Grain finished means that in the last 4-8 months before slaughter, the cow was fed nothing but grain such as barley (how long does barley last?). Barley is preferred to other grains because of its favorable nutritional content, such as higher protein levels.
The USDA ranks its highest beef and "prime" which comes from cattle that are 9-30 months old where its lowest grade, E accounts for beef from cattle as old as 8 years of age. After prime comes standard and commercial grades, which are ungraded and usually are the lowest quality cuts, followed by utility, cutter and canner beef, which is used in processed meat products and definitely not cuts you'd want to cook.
USDA Beef Grades
Prime Beef: The highest grade of beef with abundant marbling and sourced from cattle in the A-B maturity range, containing about 8-13% fat. Less than 2% of US beef is prime grade.
Choice Beef: Widely available, this beef usually comes from Angus cows. It isn't quite as well-marbled as prime but holds its ground as a close 2nd place. It contains 4-10% fat and also comes from cattle at A or B maturity range.
Select Beef: Easily found at any grocery store, it contains only 2-4% fat and has little marbling. It's sourced from level A maturity cattle.
An exceptionally marbled cut of beef, wagyu beef, for example, can receive a further 1-5 rating for marbling, color, texture, and quality.
Foreign Beef Grading
The US isn't the only country that grades its beef, Japan, Korea, and Australia also have a similar grading system which also depends heavily on fat marbling to grade. Whereas other major beef consuming & producing countries, such as France, Brazil, and India lack a mass-market beef grading system.
In Japan, beef cuts can come with a fat content as high as 40%. Sold in thin cuts it is often given grade 3 on a 1-5 scale rating. They also judge meat color, firmness, and fat color. 40% of Japanese marketed beef is grade 3, it is packaged and given a quality stamp of 'A', 'B', or 'C'.
Korea has a similar grading system ranging from +1, the best, to 3 which is ranked worst. Koreans judge beef based on color, texture, carcass maturity, fat color, and marbling.
Australia. The third-largest meat exporter in the world after India and Brazil uses two agencies, with two forms of ranking marbling, to grade beef. AUS-MEAT assigns beef a score from 100(no marbling present) to 1190(if extreme marbling is visible). It also inspects color, fat depth, carcass weight and age, and the pH level of the meat. Marbling is measured on a scale of 1-9.
Next time you go to the supermarket take a better look at your meat and make sure it's high grade. It may cost a little more, but it's well worth it in the end.
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