WHAT'S IN YOUR FREEZER?

What’s in your freezer?

A guide to understanding the confusing lingo of beef.

Anyone who loves to eat beef has seen many of the terms below, and although they seem fairly straight forward, there is often a lot more to the story.

Certified Angus Beef: This is merely a marketing term, (and a very misleading one at that,) created by the American Angus Association. This organization, in an attempt to increase awareness of Angus beef and to help command a higher price for their members, created the Certified Angus Beef brand in 1978 and registered it with the USDA. Unfortunately, it has very to do with if the beef is actually from an Angus cow. To quote Mark Schatzker from his book “Steak, One Man’s Search for the World’s Tastiest Piece of Beef”:

“For an American cow to qualify as Certified Angus Beef, it must possess certain carcass characteristics – fine and ample marbling, a well-shaped rib eye, not too much back fat, and so forth. The Cow must also have been – here it comes – at least 51 percent black. The thinking is that since Angus cattle are black, a cow that is mostly black is mostly Angus – the logical equivalent of proclaiming that since cats have fur, any animal that is at least half fur-covered must therefore be a cat. Angus cattle, it so happens, do not enjoy a monopoly on blackness. Black Simmentals are black. Welsh Blacks are black. Black Charolais are black, and so are Galloways, Salers, and black Limousins. A lot of Holsteins, the famous black-and-white dairy cows, possess blackness in excess of 51 percent. (More than one cattle industry type has told me that thousands of Holstein steers – which, being male, can’t be milked – are fed flaked corn and sold as Certified Angus Beef.) Some Angus cattle, furthermore, are not black. There is a gene for redness in Angus DNA, and it is recessive, which means that two flagrantly pure black Angus Cattle can produce a calf that will be as red as the morning sun. If you drive by a herd of black doddies grazing the electric green Scottish countryside, look hard enough, and you will see red ones. Some believe red Angus represent the very purest strain, because a red Angus bull with a red Angus cow will only produce red calves, whereas with black parents you don’t know what you’re getting.”

Although it’s the most dominant brand, the Certified Angus Beef brand is only one of 89 USDA recognized certified brands. These brands represent 25 percent of all beef produced in the United States, and 57 out of the 89 contain the word Angus. Angus is the magic word for beef marketing.

However, in 2004 DNA testing revealed that up to 50 percent of retail beef carrying a label with the name "Angus" did not meet the USDA criteria for Angus branding. In other words, the “Angus” beef being marketed in stores wasn’t Angus.

The unfortunate reality is that when you pay a premium at the store for Angus branded or Certified Angus Beef, there is a very good chance that it is not even half Angus, if at all.

CAFO: “Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation”: A large, crowded feed lot where more than 1000 cattle are fed grain, surplus or spent grains such as beer barley or wet grain distillers (by-products of the ethanol industry), and even rejected or defective food items such as French fries, gummy bears, or anything else with caloric value. Cattle at CAFO’s receive growth hormones to fatten them up quickly, and antibiotics if necessary to keep them alive until slaughter. Issues of lack of cleanliness, unhealthy conditions, and E. coli continue to plague CAFO’s. Unfortunately, CAFO’s provide 75% of the beef consumed in the United States, and are the primary source for “Certified Angus Beef” above. The reason for the domination of CAFO’s is that thanks to grain subsidies, they are a very cost effective and cheap way to fatten / finish a cow.

Organic Beef: Beef from a cow that has been fed organic food. This can be grass or grain. Most organic beef sold is grain-finished in feed lots, it’s just that the feed they receive is organically grown. Don’t buy beef labeled merely as “Organic” thinking that you are getting grass-finished beef.

Grass Fed Beef: A well-intentioned, but often misleading term since virtually all cattle start off grass-fed early on in their lives. Most of these cows have their diets supplemented with grain, or are switched to grain in the months before slaughter, and the health benefits of being raised on grass are lost during the grain finishing process. Meat processors that want to label their product as 'Grass fed' must have each label approved independently, so technically, the label could mean something slightly different for each company. So just because beef is touted as being “Grass Fed”, doesn’t guarantee that it is also “Grass Finished.”

Grass Finished Beef: These cows have been raised on fresh or dried grass for their entire lives, and have never been fed grain. Grass Finished cows have the following health benefits over grain-fed beef:

Two to four times the amount of Omega-3 fatty acids
Three to Five times the amount Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA)
Much higher in precursors to vitamins A and E, and cancer-fighting anti-oxidants
Lower levels of unhealthy fat
More likely to be free of hormones and antibiotics
A much safer beef option over conventional meat according to Consumer Reports

The positive health effects of Omega-3 and CLA are far too numerous to cover in this article, but you can read about them at https://draxe.com/nutrition/grass-fed-beef-nutrition/

The only negative aspect of 100 percent Grass Fed Beef is that it is slightly more expensive than conventional beef. That is because it takes longer (typically a year or more longer) to raise a cow on grass to slaughter weight. For many people, the benefits to the consumer, the cow, and the environment are well worth the additional cost. For people who deal directly with a farmer committed to grass finished beef, buying a whole or half cow brings the cost per pound down significantly, to the point that it is actually much less expensive per pound than even conventional beef at the supermarket.

Registered Angus Beef: These are purebred Angus cattle that are registered with either of two organizations. The lineage and physical characteristics of each cow is closely tracked. Many farmers who raise registered Angus cattle are actively involved in improving their herd through selective breeding to optimize desirable traits such as Weight gain, Marbling, Ribeye size, birth weight, etc. The only way to ensure you are getting 100% Angus beef, is to buy it from a farmer who raises registered Angus cattle. Good farmers will show you photographs and the registration papers on the cow you purchase. Really good farmers will also allow you to visit their farm to see their facilities and animals in person before you buy.