Chill... it's just freezing.

 

It seems so simple to just freeze something. You get meat really cold, it lasts a long time. But, we all know it is not that simple. Lots of questions arise with freezing. Questions about packaging, timing, size of cuts, type of freezer, how to thaw it and what it does to quality, all come up when freezing meat. So, let’s talk about them.

Packaging

Air is the enemy when you are freezing foods. Air allows for oxidation and freezer burn. You want to keep air away from the surface of the cuts in any way you can. For meat, the best packaging method when freezing is vacuum. Some butchers use vacuum packaging, and you can buy vacuum packaged cuts in the store. At home, you can buy a small vacuum packager and package cuts yourself. If you freeze lots of meat cuts at home, that may be a good investment for you.

Ground cuts that are packaged in chubs are essentially in vacuum, but you may get a little spoilage in the edges, near the opening, but most of the meat is protected from air.

The wax paper wrap that butchers use also works well in the freezer. It keeps the air away from the cuts pretty well, but those packages don’t last as long as vacuum. If you are buying a whole or half beef, it will take a long time to go through it all. The packages will likely be in your freezer for several months.

At home, you may want to try those freezer bags that zip closed. Make sure that you squeeze as much air out of those as you can before you close them. I try to fold them over and create a kind of seal around my cuts. Packaging like that won’t last as long as vacuum or wax paper.

The worst way to package meat for the freezer is the foam tray and overwrap like you see in the grocery store. That wrap is designed to allow oxygen through (that’s what makes the meat red), so freezing meat in those packages is just asking for freezer burn. 

Timing

The USDA guidelines state that you should consume frozen steaks, chops, and roasts within 4 to 12 months of freezing. After that, it’s not as much a safety issue, but eating quality. Juiciness, flavor, tenderness may suffer some if you wait longer than a year. In vacuum packaging in a chest or stand up freezer, whole muscle cuts last months and months.

Sausage, ground beef, and cooked meats don’t fare as well. Grinding, cooking, and adding ingredients like salt are all things that make meat oxidize more quickly and that can even happen in the freezer. USDA suggests ground beef only be stored frozen for 4 months. Cooked meats, even less than that (2-3 months).

Sizing

When you are putting fresh meats in the freezer for the first time, you want them to freeze as quickly as possible. So, smaller cuts and packages work better than large ones. If you like to buy things in bulk, its best to repackage meats into portion-sized packages and freeze it in smaller packages. Then, you can just take them out as you need them, rather than having everything frozen together. I like to flatten ground beef packages out so they will stack, and they will freeze faster.

Placement

Keeping with the concept of freezing meat as quickly as possible, you want to make sure that you spread non-frozen things out in the freezer when you first put them in there. Don’t put it all together in one place. It will take a long time to freeze, and I’ve even seen things spoil in the middle when they don’t get frozen completely.

Hopefully if you buy a large quantity of meat, it will come frozen and you can put it all in the freezer at the same time, but if you need to freeze a large quantity all at once, you may consider freezing it over several days.  Put some cuts in the freezer and spread them out, let them freeze, and put in a few more cuts the next day. Whole muscle cuts are ok for a few weeks in the fridge, so just be aware of how long they’ve been stored. If you have to freeze cuts over a few days like this, freeze the ground cuts first.

Which freezer is best?

If you are planning to store frozen meat for several months, its best to do so in a chest freezer or an upright freezer that is only a freezer. The freezer in your fridge is ok for short term freezer storage, but think about how often it is opened and every time the door opens, it loses cold air. It’s best to have your meat stored in a specified freezer, even if it’s a small one.

Thawing

A few years ago, I wrote a whole post about thawing frozen meat, and in short, it’s best to thaw meat in cold water or in the refrigerator. Cold running water works best. The microwave is ok, too. You shouldn’t set meat on the counter to thaw. You don’t want it to spend too much time in the danger zone of temperature where pathogens have a chance to grow.  Also, you can always just cook your meat from frozen.

Can I thaw and refreeze?

Yes. Some people are concerned about meat that has been frozen, thawed and refrozen. As long as it stayed below 40°F when it was thawed, food-safety wise, it should be fine. It may lose some juiciness or have flavor issues from being thawed and refrozen, but chances are, you won’t even be able to tell.

Whole muscle cuts like steaks, chops and roasts take this treatment better than ground and processed cuts. Also, you don’t want to thaw ground beef and leave it thawed for very long at all if you decide to refreeze. At refrigerated temperatures, oxidation happens and it will be accelerated in meat that has been previously frozen.

*If for some reason, your freezer loses power, don’t open it. That will just cause you to lose the cold air that’s in there. The meat will stay frozen for a while without power. When you get power back or get a new freezer, check the temperature of the meat. Is it still frozen? Is it thawed, but still cold (below 40°F)? If these are true, its probably ok to just refreeze. If the meat is at room temperature or its been over 40°F for 4-6 hours or more, you need to discard it.

What does freezing do to quality?

The answer to this question is complicated. It depends. Some aspects of quality may actually be improved with freezing. Researchers at South Dakota State found that freezing beef actually improved the tenderness of beef steaks compared to non-frozen. The ice crystals in the beef acted like tiny little tenderizers.

For the most part, in whole muscle cuts under ideal conditions, freezing doesn’t have much effect on other aspects of quality like flavor and juiciness. Leaving something in the freezer for long periods or poor packaging may result in flavor issues and loss of juiciness, though. Ground beef and processed meats are more prone to flavor problems when they have been frozen, but under good conditions (packaging and fast freezing), the benefits of storing meat in the freezer out-weighs the problems.

 

I hope my post is helpful in answering your freezing questions. Like always, please reach out if you have any questions or concerns.

Cuts to try

I've been sharing posts on Facebook with new cuts to try and I wanted to put them all in one place to make them easier to find.

The Meat Industry in the midst of COVID-19

This is a scary time. Our entire society is fighting an enemy we can't see and have never fought before. 

Everyone is worried and stressed.

There have been news reports this week about the virus spreading in meat packing plants and those plants shutting down or significantly slowing production.

What does that mean for our food supply?

First, we are not going to run out of food. Yes, a slow down in production may affect the variety of protein available in some parts of our country, but we are not going to run out. We may have to get more creative or open minded about what we cook and serve our families. We may have to try new things or not have our favorite cuts for a little while. 

But, this too shall pass. We will not run out of food.

Packing plants

Workers in packing plants work in very close quarters. They have to stand near each other. Social distancing is not possible. There are lots of shared spaces like break rooms, changing rooms, and work areas. It’s not surprising that the virus spread in the plants because people are so close to each other.

That doesn't mean that COVID-19 is being passed on to consumers. The USDA does not have any reports of people becoming infected with COVID-19 from food or food packaging. This virus mainly spreads from person to person and is a respiratory virus meaning that you become infected when it enters your nose, eyes, or mouth. Viruses do not grow in food and when foods are cooked, viruses are killed. Follow the four steps of food safety to keep your family safe from all illness; wash your hands, be sure to cook your food to safe temperatures, keep cooked foods away from uncooked foods, and be sure to chill your leftovers in a timely manner.

Companies are doing what they can to keep their doors open and keep their people safe. Many are taking temperatures of employees, testing employees for the disease, and when people are infected, they stay home from work.  There is lots of extra cleaning and sanitation. Workers are wearing masks (most already wear gloves and wash their hands frequently). Some companies are providing partitions to keep people apart from each other.

These plants are in the middle of the food chain, so shutting down can have devastating consequences up and down the food supply.

Farmers

This disease has been dreadful for farmers. Some dairy farmers are dumping milk and egg farmers breaking eggs. We’ve heard about potatoes and other produce going to waste because no one can come pick it. Farmers all over this country have millions of animals ready to go to harvest in our food supply. Packing plants not purchasing them is a devastating condition for those farmers. The supply chain for beef animals goes back over two years to when the cow was bred. Pork and poultry are not quite as long, but still several months.

Grocery stores

People are buying more food in grocery stores than we’ve ever seen. Those stores have to have employees there to keep the food on the shelves. Then there are the truck drivers and supply chain workers that are also still hard at work in this mess. Those folks are putting themselves at risk every day because they have to be interact with people. They wear masks and try to social distance, but it must be so stressful.

In the US, we have the safest, least expensive food supply in the world. But that takes millions of people working every day. I love to think about the scope of our industry. That industry that feeds 300 million people.

Please continue to ask me about the meat industry. Hit me up with questions about new cuts that you are trying or new ways of cooking. Let me know about your successes and failures. Send me concerns about food safety. I’m happy to answer any question you may have.

Lab grown meat is not Impossible

Meat alternatives have been in the news a lot lately. A certain Royal burger chain has recently launched a burger that was once considered Impossible, and I can’t open my inbox or walk through a crowd at a conference without hearing something about lab-grown meat. So, it’s about time that I write something about it.

First. Is it Impossible?

We are really talking about two completely different products here.

       1.      Plant based meats – Products made to taste and feel like meat, but made from plants.

       2.      Lab-grown meats – Meat grown in a petri dish from cells and media. Not from plants, but not really from animals either.

One is out in the market, the other is still in the development stages.

Plant based meats

Some plant-based meats I found at a grocery
store in Texas.

The science behind the Impossible burger is actually pretty cool. They looked at meat and asked themselves, “What makes meat so tasty?” They felt like the answer was heme, a source of iron found in muscle and blood. Heme can also be found in soy and some other plants. So they isolated the heme producing DNA out of the soy plants and inserted it into yeast. Now the yeast can grow the heme through fermentation. They combine that with soy and potato proteins, coconut and sunflower oils, salt and some other ingredients. From there, they make burgers or sausage or whatever they want. If you look at the nutrition information (calories, fat, etc…) of the Impossible burger, you’ll see that it’s pretty similar to a beef burger.

There is another plant-based meat product called Beyond Meat that uses peas, mung beans, fava beans, and brown rice as their protein sources. They also use coconut and sunflower oils as well as cocoa butter and canola oil. Coconut oil is more saturated than other oils and likely gives these products a mouthfeel that is more similar to meats. Beyond Meat prides itself on not using GMOs and instead using beet juice extract, apple extract, and other ‘natural flavors’ to produce the meaty flavor. From what I can tell, the nutrition information on this one is also similar to a beef patty.

Lab grown meats

Meat products made from cells grown in a lab are being developed by over 40 different start-up companies. The most popular and well-funded of those is probably Memphis Meats, out of Berkley, CA. Others include Blue Nalu, Future Meat Technology, Finless Foods, Wild Type, and Aleph Farms.

I’m sure all these companies have their own spin on the process, but in a very basic way, they are using cells isolated from animals, either satellite cells or embryonic stem cells to grow more cells in a lab rather than growing them in an animal.

The cells are grown in what’s called a Bio reactor. Rather than feed and water, the cells need media, which is a combination of salts, sugars, and amino acids. Just like feeds change as animals grow, the needs of the cells change as they grow and differentiate. The scientists control the growth of the cells with hormones and provide them with scaffolding, which is a structure for them to grow on.

This technology is quite expensive. The first cell-based hamburger that was prepared in 2013 cost approximately $278,000, but today that cost is down to about $100. A company called Eat Just, Inc. has chicken nuggets that only costs $50 a piece.

A few of these companies are moving from lab-scale up to pilot plants, but the most ambitious timeline has products available for consumers no earlier than 2022. Most are after 2025.

Certain cell-based products will be easier to develop than others. Comminuted products like ground beef, hot dogs and chicken nuggets will be quicker to develop than those that are trying to produce whole-muscle cuts like a steak, a chicken breast, or a pork chop. The correct texture of a marbled steak will take a little longer to develop than a ground beef burger.

Another hurdle for these products will be regulations. In the US, meat products are regulated by USDA and call-based and plant products are regulated by FDA. The two agencies have agreed to work together to develop food safety regulations and labeling standards for cell-based meats.

One big question is what will it be called? The USDA has standards of identity for labels like ground beef, ham, and chicken nuggets. Currently, it is not clear if beef grown in a lab outside of a cow meets those standards. (I don’t think so, but no one has asked me.) Regardless, cell-based meat or lab-grown meat doesn’t have a very good ring to it.

So, lab-grown meats are still a long way from our dinner plates. As a rancher, a meat scientist, and as a mom, I’m not really worried about feeding them to my family any time soon.

Every Steak has a Story

May is National Beef Month. I don’t know who decides these months or why, but I’m glad we have a whole month devoted to a protein that I love to eat and raise. I have been mulling on the idea for this post for a while and figured May would be a great time to put my thoughts on paper, or technically, computer screen.

I love to do farm tours. We take a group of ladies on our annual Moms on the Farm Tour here in Northwest Arkansas, but we also do tours with students and other groups. A few years ago, I had some friends from Dallas come to town and ask me for something fun to do with their kids and I said, “Want to go see a dairy?” And we did. We toured a local dairy and had a great time!

On these tours, everyone loves to hear the farm story; how long the farm has been in operation, how many generations of this family have operated the farm, what crops have been raised there over the years. We love to see those farm stories in the grocery store, too. Several food companies do a great job of sharing the stories of their farmers with their consumers. People love to go to the farmers market or see ‘locally grown’ on the food they buy. I think it’s great that so many consumers want to know about their food and the farmers that produce it.

But, here is what I think people are missing… every steak has a story.

There are about ¾ of a million beef farms and ranches in the US, and over 91% are family owned or individually operated. The average size of a cow herd is 40 cows.

That means that most of the beef bought in the US came from a farmer with a story, just like the one you would hear from our ranch. The calves from our ranch aren’t sold at the farmers market or to a special store with our name on it. They go from our place to a backgrounder (like the Peterson Farm Brothers) or a feedlot operation (like the Feedyard Foodie). I’ve written a post about the segments of the beef industry. Then they will be harvested in a commercial facility and processed into beef that may go to a fancy restaurant or a small grocery store.

Cows on snow on the plains, on green grass here in
Northwest Arkansas, or in the arid mountains in New Mexico.
They all raise beef.

When you buy a steak at the store or order one in a restaurant, it could have come from a farm in Florida or a ranch in Montana. We visited a farm in Hawaii where the cows ate Noni fruit and lived within view of the Pacific Ocean. That’s the great thing about beef. Cows can live in very diverse climates and under lots of different conditions, but they all produce beef.

If you are interested in hearing more stories about farmers who raise beef and others in the beef industry, check out these blogs:

Tales of a Kansas Farm Mom

Cows Kids and Grass

Faith, Family, and Beef

Bovidiva

Beef Runner

It turned to the DARK SIDE: Why did my meat turn brown?

Today is STAR WARS day. May the 4^th (be with you). I’ve had several questions lately about meat that has turned brown. Has it really turned to the DARK SIDE?

Everyone that has bought meat has seen this happen. Maybe you take you steaks out of the package, and a little bit of brown is under the sticker on the package. Maybe you open a package of ground beef, and a little bit of brown is on the bottom of the package. Maybe you are marinating some pork chops in the fridge and they were brown in the afternoon when you got them out to cook.

It happens, and you have questions. Is it still safe to eat? Did the butcher hide this little spot under the sticker? Why did it turn brown? As a meat scientist, this is one of the most popular questions I answer.

Is it safe? If it has been kept at a cold temperature and is not way past its best-by date, most likely, yes, it is safe to eat. Smell it. You can’t smell the bacteria that will make you sick, but smelly bacteria will let you know if the meat has been at stored unsafe temperatures. If it’s not smelly, cook it using a meat thermometer.

Now, about that color…

People ask me or tell me all the time about how the butcher was trying to fool them by putting the brown spot under the sticker or how they put the fresh meat on top of the old brown meat. I realize it looks suspect, but that’s not what’s happening. It’s actually the sticker or the package that makes the meat turn brown.

I’ve talked about the changes in meat color before. It was one of my first posts and is actually one of my favorite topics and the subject of many of my research projects.

Meat turns from red to brown due to OXIDATION. If you think way back to chemistry class, you might remember that oxidation is the loss of electrons from a molecule. Meat color is controlled by a protein called myoglobin, and in the middle of myoglobin, there is an Iron. When that iron loses an electron, the protein changes shape and looks brown. We call the brown protein metmyoglobin.

So, what causes the oxidation? The change in meat color from red to brown can be caused by several events.

You pull off the packaging, and there
is the brown spot! Why?

1.  Very low levels of oxygen. That is what is happening underneath the sticker and in some packages of meat. We know that the oxygen in the air reacts with the myoglobin to make it turn red. However, when that oxygen is blocked by a sticker or part of the package, the level of oxygen is drastically lowered, causing oxidation and the brown color.

2. Time in storage. (Warning: nerdy meat scientist answer) This one is a little more complicated. When the meat turns red, the oxygen really only penetrates a little layer of the surface of the cut. So, you have a little red layer on top of a purple layer. Between those two layers of red and purple, there is a low oxygen environment and oxidation happens, so a little bit of brown, metmyoglobin forms. 

Luckily, the muscle has the ability to give the electrons back to the myoglobin (that’s called reduction, the opposite of oxidation), turning it back to purple. But, eventually, the ability of the meat to donate electrons runs out, and the brown color remains, creating a brown layer between the red and the purple. At first, you can’t see it, but with time, that brown layer will work its way to the surface that people can see. 

These steps are sped up in meat that has been on the shelf in the cooler longer (like aged meats) or by higher temperatures.

3. Salts and marinades. People love to add flavor to their meats in the form of marinades and rubs. I had a question about this just last week. Someone had bought some pork chops and placed them in the fridge to marinate all day. When they got them out to cook them, the chops had turned brown. Salt is actually a pro-oxidant. It causes oxidation. Some spices can cause oxidation, too. So it was probably the marinade that caused the meat to turn brown.

4. Freezing. Sometimes freezing meat can cause the color to change.

5. Bacteria. Yep, bacteria may produce sulfides, peroxides or other metabolites in the meat that cause it to turn brown. They also cause the meat to have a spoiled smell. We call these spoilage bacteria. They usually grow when meat has been stored at temperatures above 40°F, or stored for too long a time. When these bacteria grow, the meat turns brown, smelly, and maybe even slimy. Brown color with a putrid smell and slime are good indicators that pathogenic bacteria have also had a chance to grow and the meat may not be safe to eat. 

So, if your meat turns to the dark side, just give it a sniff. If it’s not smelly, you can probably still cook it. 

(Also, full disclosure, I'm really more of a Star Trek gal. Live long and prosper.)

Eating Beef Without Your Heart Having a Cow

One of our former students is currently in pharmacy school. Being an Animal Science major in pharmacy school, he finds himself answering lots of questions about animals and the food industry. He and I were visiting about some of the preconceived ideas people have about beef and its effects on the heart. So, I suggested that he write a guest blog post about it. I think he did a great job!

Let me introduce you to Mr. Brad Briggs:

Brad's #meatcounterselfie 

My name is Brad Briggs. I’m a third-year pharmacy student at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, but I also have a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in animal science from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. To a lot of people, these might seem like two totally different worlds, but they actually have a lot in common. Pharmacy wants to keep patients healthy while keeping the cost of healthcare to the most reasonable level possible. Farmers and ranchers focus on producing products that are safe, affordable, and the highest possible quality. We both care about the consumer in terms of safety, affordability, and quality of our products and services. Pharmacists and farmers both want their consumers to be happy and healthy.

We spend hours upon hours in pharmacy school learning drugs, interactions, side effects, treatment algorithms etc. to treat our patients in the most effective manner possible, but we also focus on non-pharmacological interventions including healthy eating habits. A large part of what keeps you healthy is what you choose to put in your cupboard and refrigerator. Sometimes certain meats, like beef, can get a bad rap when it comes to things like heart health. I love beef, and I also care about heart health. The two things are not mutually exclusive. My goal in this article is to talk about dietary recommendations for fat and sodium intake in regards to heart health while making recommendations on cuts of beef that help you stay within those goals.

First I would like to start with some basic definitions (I was a high school science teacher for two years, bear with me). Saturated fats are simply fats that don’t have any double bonds between carbon atoms. That just means that most saturated fats are solids at room temperature. Examples of saturated fats are butter, cheese, and various other animal fats. Trans fats are fats with kinks in their chemical structure. In many cases, they are artificially produced. The restaurant industry commonly uses trans fats in their deep fryers because they can be used longer without having to change the oil. Some places like New York have outlawed the use of trans fats in food preparation because they have such a negative impact on health. Trans fats raise bad (LDL) cholesterol and lower good (HDL) cholesterol. Trans fats are commonly found in baked goods like donuts, pie crusts, and biscuits among other things. Lean beef is defined by the USDA as 3.5 ounces or 100 grams of cooked beef that contains less than 10 grams total fat, 4.5 grams saturated fat, and 95 milligrams of cholesterol. Extra-lean beef is defined as a 3.5 ounces or 100 grams of cooked beef that contains less than 5 grams total fat, 2 grams saturated fat, and 95 milligrams of cholesterol.

Lean beef is not the white whale of the meat industry. There are several tasty options for lean healthy cuts of beef in your local grocery store. There are actually 29 cuts of lean beef that have a total fat content that is between that of a skinless chicken breast and a skinless chicken thigh. A safe bet for lean beef when shopping is to look for “loin” or “round” on the package. You can always ask the butcher if you have questions as well. The butcher at my local chain grocery store is extremely friendly and helpful.

The American Heart Association gives us our basic guidelines for fat and salt intake for a heart healthy lifestyle. The recommended intake of saturated fat for someone trying to lower their cholesterol is 5 to 6% of their total daily calories. For someone eating 2,000 calories a day, that is about 13 grams of saturated fat total per day. To put that into beef terms, that
is about 6.8 ounces of top sirloin steak or 5.6 ounces of 95% lean ground beef which are both considered lean cuts of beef. The American Heart Association does not have a specific value for trans-fat consumption. Best practice would be to generally avoid anything that has added trans-fat by reading the nutrition labels. Excessive trans-fat should not be a major concern when purchasing beef products. As far as salt, the AHA recommends less than 2,300 milligrams a day. Ideally an adult would consume less than 1,500 milligrams of salt per day, but even reducing whatever your current sodium level is by 1,000 milligrams a day can have a very positive impact on blood pressure and heart health. The naturally occurring sodium in beef is negligible ranging from about 30 to 60 milligrams for a 3-ounce serving.

The main issue with sodium and beef comes with preparation. Many marinades, steak sauces, and seasoning preparations are LOADED with sodium. One tablespoon of A1 steak sauce has 280 milligrams of sodium. A tablespoon of Italian dressing has 243 milligrams of sodium. A tablespoon of soy sauce has 920 milligrams of sodium which is almost half of the total daily limit. A teaspoon of taco seasoning has 215 milligrams of sodium. However, you don’t have to sacrifice your taste buds in order to save your circulatory system. There are many low sodium or even salt free substitutes. In my own kitchen, we make our own taco seasoning without salt. We also use salt free seasonings that can be purchased in the seasoning section of the grocery store. Being a meat lover, I also often grill steaks straight from the butcher without additional seasoning. Mother nature can do all the seasoning work for you!

Beef can be a heart friendly meat choice, but like in most aspects of life, moderation is the key. It is important to have a healthy diet as well as some sort of exercise routine in order to have a healthy heart. Your pharmacist or other healthcare provider can always answer any questions you may have about food choices or salt substitutes that might be right for you. It has been my pleasure to be your future pharmacist at the meat counter.

Brad Briggs is a Student Pharmacist at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. He received a B.S. and M.S. in animal science from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville which introduced him to the world of agriculture. Moving to North Little Rock, AR after graduate school eventually landed him at the head of a high school biology classroom at North Little Rock High School. After two years on the other side of the desk, he applied and was accepted to the UAMS College of Pharmacy where he has been able to use his love of teaching and science background to start educating his patients for a better state of health. He looks forward to practicing pharmacy in a hospital setting working directly with patients to teach them about their medicine to improve their chronic and acute disease states.

What's in a food label? Where is the Angus?

To continue my blog series on What’s in a Food Label? I thought I would talk about ANGUS. Angus is one of the most popular claims you’ll see on beef, both at the store and at restaurants.

Angus is a breed of cattle. Just like dogs, cats, and horses, cattle have breeds, and one of the most famous and most popular breeds of beef cattle is the Angus breed. (Side note: a cowboy at the NFR right now is sponsored by the Angus breed. That cowboy is from my hometown!)

These are come Angus-cross steers on one of our
 research projects at the University of Arkansas.

Angus cattle originated in the Northeastern region of Scotland. They were black (although a few red ones pop up every now and then) and polled, meaning that they naturally do not grow horns. For years, farmers chose the Angus cows and bulls that produced the best beef, and now the breed is known for its high quality carcasses. Today, beef from Angus and Angus cross cattle are known for their high marbling and good eating quality. 

Certified Angus Beef. In the 1970’s the Angus Association took a big leap to market their cattle and started Certified Angus Beef.  Certified Angus Beef is a USDA Certified Program which means that the company (CAB) sets the requirements that beef must meet to qualify for their program, but USDA graders certify that all the criteria are met and literally give it a stamp of approval.

For Certified Angus Beef, those criteria include:

·        A minimum marbling score of Modest or higher (meaning it is at least Average Choice)

·        A ribeye area of 10.0 to 16.0 square inches

·        Less than 1.0 inch of fat thickness

·        A carcass weight of less than 1050 pounds

These are not the only requirements. The cattle must also be of Angus influence which can be shown through their genotype and traced to their parents. Or, more commonly, the cattle must be at predominantly (51%) solid black, and they may not display certain non-Angus characteristics like dairy-type or Brahman humps.

That means that CAB cattle are not 100% Angus. However, Angus are the only major beef breed of cattle that were originally black, so if a calf is 51% black and meets all the other requirements of CAB, chances are, it has some Angus in its pedigree.

Other Angus. We see Angus on lots of packages and products that are not Certified Angus Beef. In fact, there are 109 USDA Certified Beef Programs and 71 of them use the word ‘Angus’ in their name. All of them have different criteria for beef quality. Some are high quality programs like CAB, whereas others are for lower quality beef (Select, Commercial, and Utility).

Additionally, there are several Angus claims on packages and menus that are not USDA Certified Programs, but remember that USDA must approve claims on meat labels, and that includes claims about breed, such as Angus.

On a personal note, we raise a few Angus cattle. One of my favorite bulls is an Angus named Moses. Several of our Simmental (another beef breed) cows are black, which means that there is an Angus somewhere in their pedigree. That is actually the case for lots of cattle. Because of CAB and the rise in Angus marketing, farmers have selected for cattle with black hides because they can be sold at a premium. In the past couple of decades the number of black cattle going to harvest has risen substantially.

This is our daughter showing her
Red Angus calf, Milly. 

Red Angus. Yes. The Angus cattle carry a recessive gene that causes some of their calves to be red. A whole new breed of cattle has risen from those cattle known as Red Angus. We have a few Red Angus cattle, too.

One of my favorite Jack-In-The-Box commercials is the one where Jack explains to all of “those of you NOT from Texas” where on the cow the sirloin beef comes for his new Sirloin Burgers. At the end of the commercial, one of the employees says that their competitors are advertising an Angus Burger and asks Jack to point out the Angus part of the cow. Jack looks to the floor and says, “I’d rather not.” So Funny.

Aging Beef

When you go to a fancy restaurant, you may hear that their beef is "aged." Sometimes they may say that it is dry aged or wet aged. They may tell you it was aged for 14 or 21 days, maybe more.

But, what does that mean?

Aging beef has nothing to do with how old the animal was. When beef is aged, it is stored in refrigeration for a set amount of time. The beef is typically not frozen, just refrigerated (29 to 34°F).

Why?

Aging beef makes it more tender.

The protein in an animal’s body is constantly turning over; breaking down and being built back up. One set of enzymes break down the protein and another mechanism builds it. Even after the animal is harvested, those breaking-down enzymes are still active, continuing to work until they are broken down or the meat is frozen or cooked. If meat is stored in refrigerated temperatures, those enzymes will break down the muscle and continue to make it more tender for 4 or 5 weeks, even longer.

Sometimes, the whole carcass is held in refrigeration, but that requires a lot of space and energy. Cuts used for pot-roasts and ground beef typically don’t benefit from aging. So, most of the time, the beef is cut into different parts and pieces, and the tender ones (ribeyes, strip steaks, T-bones, sirloins) are aged, while the tougher cuts are sent directly to market.

Wet or dry aging.

Wet aging - After the beef is cut, the middle meats (ribeyes, strip steaks, T-bones, filets, and sirloins) are packaged in plastic bags and vacuum-sealed. Vacuum packaging protects the beef from bacteria and from oxygen that can cause it to spoil. The beef can be stored in a vacuum package under refrigerated temperatures for 4 to 6 weeks.  

We use the term ‘wet aging’ because the beef is aged in its own juices, not because additional water is added. If you hear that beef is aged without being specified wet or dry, chances are, it was wet aged.

Beef in a dry-aging cabinet in a grocery store in Texas. 

You can see how the edges have dried and darkened.

Dry aging – Rather than storing the beef in vacuum packages, dry-aged beef is aged without packaging in a specialized cooler or cabinet. The temperature and humidity are closely controlled. It is usually a dark room or lit with special UV lights that help control microbial growth. After the aging period, the processor must trim the edges off the cuts because they have dried out or perhaps even growth a little harmless mold (like some cheeses grow mold). This trimming and the evaporation during the aging process cause the beef to lose weight during dry aging, thus increasing the cost.

A rib in a dry-aging bag. This was sent
to me by a friend who was worried
about the dark coloration and mold.
I told them to just trim it off.

Some companies sell special bags that can be used to dry-age beef. They protect the beef from some moisture loss and microbial growth. Some people like to use them to dry age beef cuts at home.

Originally beef was dry-aged as whole carcasses, then with the development of plastics, vacuum bags were used for aging. They cut down on moisture loss and the conditions for aging were easier to control. Now some restaurants and stores provide beef dry-aged in specialized rooms, cabinets, or in bags at a premium price.

Can you taste the difference? Wet aged beef has a more acidic, more rare flavor, whereas dry aged beef has a more brown-roasted, well done flavor. Both will be tender and juicy. I think it’s a personal preference.

Does it matter what grade it is? Aging will benefit any grade of young beef. It doesn't matter if it is Select, Choice or Prime, it will tenderize with aging. Very lean cuts and Select cuts are more prone to developing off flavors when they are aged for a very long time (longer than 4 weeks). 

Does the animal's age matter to aging? Beef from older cattle will age some, but not as well. The toughness of older cattle is more due to connective tissue and it is not largely affected by aging. Tenderizing cuts from older animals usually takes plant enzymes like those from pineapple or figs.

That’s aging. It’s pretty simple. If you have any questions, just let me know.

Beef Quality Grading

What does ‘Quality’ mean to you?

Quality can mean lots of things. In regards to meat, some people may equate it with freshness or wholesomeness. Others may think the word ‘Quality’ indicates nutritional quality, in that a certain food is good for you. Still others may think ‘Quality’ means it tastes good, meaning that high quality meat it is tender, juicy, and full of flavor. All of these are true.

However, in the beef industry when we talk about Quality grading, we are talking about terms like Prime and Choice, and those terms help us know how tender, juicy, and flavorful a beef cut may be based on the age of the animal and the amount of marbling (the little flecks of fat found within the muscles in a cut of beef). These grades are used to help farmers and meat packers market their animals based on an indicator of eating satisfaction. Keep in mind that grading is different from Inspection, which determines whether or not the meat is safe and wholesome, and grading is voluntary whereas inspection is required.

At the turn of the 20^th century, someone in the USDA decided that farmers and meat producers needed a consistent way to determine if one beef carcass was superior to another, so they began to work on ways to differentiate carcasses based on their eating satisfaction. There is a very detailed history of meat grading on the Texas A&M meat science website.

How are cattle graded?

Today, cattle are graded in beef processing plants by USDA employees whose services are paid for by the beef packing companies. In some plants, grades are applied with the help of cameras and computers.

I am not a USDA grader, but I can estimate
grades. Here, I am grading some carcasses
for a small processor. You can see how the
carcass is cut for the grader to evaluate it.

First, the grader determines if the cattle are young. They look at specific bones along their backbone to make this call. A very large percentage of the cattle that are graded by USDA graders are young. Because the beef from older cattle can be significantly tougher, they are graded differently. It can get pretty complicated, but if it REALLY interests you, check it out on the Texas A&M meat science webpage.

Next, the grader looks at the marbling. That’s the important part. Each carcass will be cut so the USDA grader can look at the ribeye muscle at the 12^th rib. They compare the marbling in each ribeye to the marbling in a set of standardized cards to determine the Quality grade. The graders give the carcasses marbling scores that match up with the USDA quality grade.

What do the different grades mean?

USDA Prime.

Prime, the highest grade classification, has the greatest amount of marbling (an Abundant, Moderately Abundant or Slightly Abundant marbling score). Only about 4% of carcasses will grade Prime. These cuts are sold in expensive restaurants and fancy hotels because they are the most tender and juicy.

USDA Choice

Carcasses that qualify for Choice are considered high quality, and having a high percentage of beef that grade Choice has always been a goal of cattle producers. Today, about 2/3 of the beef carcasses graded in the US qualify for Choice. All of the quality grades are divided into high, average and low, but within Choice, those divisions are priced and marketed separately.

Upper 2/3 Choice

Carcasses from the top two divisions in the Choice grade will often qualify for one of many USDA Certified programs, such as Certified Angus Beef, Sterling Silver Beef, or Chairman’s Reserve. These marketing programs incorporate quality grade with other carcass standards to set themselves apart. Having more marbling than low Choice beef (Modest or Moderate marbling scores), these cuts are very tender and juicy and are often found in nice restaurants and fancy grocery stores.

Low Choice

When beef is labeled as USDA Choice, it is mostly likely low Choice beef. Still high quality cuts, low Choice is found in many stores and restaurants. They have less marbling (a Small marbling score) and are less expensive, but can still be tender and juicy if prepared correctly.

  

USDA Select

Cuts that qualify for the Select grade have less marbling than Choice (a Slight marbling score), but these cuts are lean and full of protein. The Select grade is very uniform and these cuts can be quite tender, juicy and flavorful, especially if braised or prepared with marinades and cooked to lower degrees of doneness (medium rare). They are the least expensive of the grades we have discussed.

There are other grade classifications for carcasses that don’t have enough marbling to even grade Select (USDA Standard) or carcasses from older animals (USDA Commercial and Utility). You probably won’t see those advertised in a store or a restaurant. There is also a whole different type of grading (Yield grading) that evaluates the percentage of edible beef each carcass will produce based on how much muscle and fat is in it, but those grades are largely used within the industry for pricing, and not really marketed to consumers.  

Quality grades are not perfect indicators of beef tenderness. You may still find tough steaks that were graded Prime, and you can probably find tender ones that were graded Select. Meat scientists are always working on ways to improve our ability to predict tenderness. (That was actually my Master’s project.)

Hopefully, the next time you go to the store or to a fancy steak restaurant, you’ll have a better understanding of what these USDA Quality Grades mean. Please let me know if you have any questions.