Countries regulate the marketing and sale of
beef
Beef is the culinary name for meat from cattle (''Bos taurus'').
In prehistoric times, humankind hunted aurochs and later domesticated them. Since that time, numerous breeds of cattle have been bred specifically for the quality or quantity ...
by observing criteria of
cattle
Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult mal ...
carcasses at the
abattoir
A slaughterhouse, also called abattoir (), is a facility where animals are slaughtered to provide food. Slaughterhouses supply meat, which then becomes the responsibility of a packaging facility.
Slaughterhouses that produce meat that is no ...
(slaughterhouse) and classifying the carcasses. This classification, sometimes optional, can suggest a market demand for a particular animal's attributes and therefore the price owed to the producer.
USDA grading system
In the United States, the
United States Department of Agriculture
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the United States federal executive departments, federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, ...
's (USDA's) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) operates a voluntary beef grading program that began in 1917. A meat processor pays for a trained AMS meat grader to grade whole carcasses at the
abattoir
A slaughterhouse, also called abattoir (), is a facility where animals are slaughtered to provide food. Slaughterhouses supply meat, which then becomes the responsibility of a packaging facility.
Slaughterhouses that produce meat that is no ...
. Such processors are required to comply with Food Safety and Inspection Service (
FSIS
The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), is the public health regulatory agency responsible for ensuring that United States' commercial supply of meat, poultry, and egg prod ...
) grade labeling procedures. The official USDA grade designation can appear as markings on retail containers, individual bags, or on USDA shield stamps, as well as on legible roller brands appearing on the meat itself.
The USDA grading system uses eight different grades to represent various levels of
marbling in beef: Prime, Choice, Select, Standard, Commercial, Utility, Cutter, and Canner. The grades are based on two main criteria: the degree of marbling (
intramuscular fat Intramuscular fat (also known as intramuscular triglycerides, intramuscular triacylglycerol, or intramyocellular triacylglycerol ''IMTG is located inside skeletal muscle fibers. It is stored in lipid droplets that exist in close proximity to the m ...
) in the beef, and the maturity (estimated age of the animal at
slaughter). Prime has the highest marbling content when compared to other grades, and is capable of fetching a premium at
restaurant
A restaurant is a business that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services. Restaurants vary greatly in appearan ...
s and
supermarket
A supermarket is a self-service Retail#Types of outlets, shop offering a wide variety of food, Drink, beverages and Household goods, household products, organized into sections. This kind of store is larger and has a wider selection than earli ...
s. , about 2.9% of carcasses grade as Prime. Choice is the most common grade sold in retail outlets, and represents roughly half of all graded beef. Select is sold as a cheaper, leaner option in many stores and is the lowest grade typically found for consumer purchase as a steak. Younger cattle (under 42 months of age) tend to be graded as Prime, Choice, Select or Standard, while older cattle are more likely to be graded Commercial, Utility, Cutter, or Canner. These latter grades of beef are used for ground products rather than for consumer sale or food service.
![Beef inspection USDA](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5e/Beef_inspection_USDA.jpg)
Some
meat scientists object to the current scheme of USDA grading because it is not based on direct measurement of tenderness, although marbling and maturity are indicators of tenderness. Most other countries' beef grading systems mirror the U.S. model, except for those in the European Union (EU). The EU employs a grading scheme that emphasizes carcass shape and amount of fat covering instead of marbling and aging. The differences in grading yield incompatible value judgments of beef value in the United States and the EU. Most beef offered for sale in
supermarket
A supermarket is a self-service Retail#Types of outlets, shop offering a wide variety of food, Drink, beverages and Household goods, household products, organized into sections. This kind of store is larger and has a wider selection than earli ...
s in the United States is graded U.S. Choice or Select. U.S. Prime beef is sold to hotels and upscale restaurants, and usually marketed as such.
In 1997, the official standards were revised to restrict the Select grade to A maturity carcasses, and to raise the minimum marbling score to qualify for Choice to modest for B maturity cattle. These changes were implemented to improve the uniformity and consistency of the grading system.
Yield grades are intended to estimate the pounds of boneless closely trimmed retail cuts from the carcass. Closely trimmed refers to approximately ¼ inch of external fat. Yield grade is determined by considering four carcass characteristics: external fat; kidney, pelvic and heart fat (KPH); ribeye area (REA); and hot carcass weight (HCW). The amount of external fat is measured at the ribbed surface between the 12th and 13th ribs. The ribbing of carcasses is described in the U.S. standards for beef grading. External fat is measured at a distance of ¾ the length of the ribeye from the chine bone end. This initial number can be adjusted up or down depending on any abnormal fat deposits. As the amount of external fat increases, the percent of retail cuts decreases.
Kidney fat is assessed subjectively and is expressed as a percentage of the carcass weight. As the percentage of KPH increases, the percent of retail cuts decreases. The ribeye area is measured at the ribbed surface, it can be estimated subjectively or measured with a device approved by the AMS. As ribeye area increase, percent retail cuts increases. Hot carcass weight is used to determine yield grade. As carcass weight increases, percent retail cuts decrease. The following equation is used to determine yield grade:
:
There are five grades, 1–5. Yield grade one carcasses are of the highest cutability, while yield grade 5 yields the lowest cutability.
Beef sold in U.S. restaurants and supermarkets is usually described by its USDA grade; however, in the early twenty-first century many restaurants and retailers began selling beef on the strength of
brand name
A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create an ...
s and the reputation of a specific breed of cattle, such as
black Angus
The Aberdeen Angus, sometimes simply Angus, is a Scottish breed of small beef cattle. It derives from cattle native to the counties of Aberdeen, Banff, Kincardine and Angus in north-eastern Scotland. In 2018 the breed accounted for over 17 ...
.
EUROP classification
The
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
's EUROP grid method of carcass classification was implemented in 1981. European Economic Community Regulations (EEC) No
1208/81and No
2930/81were enacted to facilitate the application of a community scale for the classification of carcasses of adult bovine animals. This was to ensure the uniform classification of the carcasses of adult bovine animals in the EEC and make the definitions of conformation classes and fat classes more precise. The need arose for a common grading scale when member states of the EEC began operating in the common beef market in 1968 (EEC) No. 805/68 and price reporting to the EC became mandatory.
In the UK, the Meat and Livestock Commission
MLC Services Ltd is responsible for the classification of over 80% of the cattle slaughtered in Britain. The EUROP grid consists of a five-point scale in which each conformation and fat class is subdivided into low, medium and high sub-classes, resulting in 15 sub-classes. In the UK, the fat classes range from 1–5; classes 4 and 5 each have high and low sub-classes, which results in a seven-point scale for fatness. It is argued by the MLC that this subdivision allows a more precise description of the carcass.
The price a farmer receives for a beast sent for slaughter is calculated by multiplying the carcass weight by the classification price for a particular category of animal (heifer, steer, bull, cow, etc.) This classification is subjectively assigned by the meat grader according to the EUROP system where E is excellent, U is Very Good, R is Good, O is Fair and P is Poor. Likewise for the fat class, where 1 is Low, 2 is Slight, 3 is Average, 4 is High, and 5 is Very High. A typical classification would be R4L where the R refers to a "Good” carcass with an “Average” to “High” covering of fat according to th
MLC
The grader is usually an independent classifier who also monitors carcass dressing specification. Most classifiers are employed by MLC services and they are audited quarterly by the
Rural Payments Agency (RPA), a government organisation. More recently video
image analysis
Image analysis or imagery analysis is the extraction of meaningful information from images; mainly from digital images by means of digital image processing techniques. Image analysis tasks can be as simple as reading bar coded tags or as sophi ...
has been used to classify beef carcasses according to the EUROP scale. There are several machines that can do this, several of which wer
trialled in Ireland The
Republic of Ireland
Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern side of the island. A ...
has used video image analysis for assignment of the EUROP classification grid since 2004.
Two main problems that are often cited in reference to the EUROP grid are its subjective application and its lack of consideration for meat eating quality.
References
{{Reflist
Trade and industrial classification systems
United States Department of Agriculture
European Union and agriculture
Beef