Meat Industry Definitions

Beef Inspection and Grading
The USDA offers a voluntary inspection that rates the potential quality of beef at the carcass level. The quality grade directly affects the price of all the cuts sold from that carcass.

Beef Grades
Quality Grading of beef is a USDA service to identify and label beef for consumers, making quality levels clear for shoppers. Many stores eliminate the USDA grading process, replacing it with a marketing name. Be wary of beef not graded by the USDA. At Tony’s we buy a combination of Prime and High Choice beef, representing the finest beef grown in the US. We also insist on Natural beef raised less than 300 miles from our markets.

Prime: Prime beef has the greatest potential for quality thanks to its breed, age, size and high marbling level. Generally only 1-2% of all graded cattle can achieve the USDA Prime grade.

High Choice: A sub-category of choice, this is top 10-12% of the the USDA Choice grade and of very high quality. Also known as ‘Top of Choice’ or ‘Premium Choice’.

Choice: This middle grade is sub-categorized as ‘Low Choice’ or ‘Top of Choice’ and represents about 55-60% of all graded beef.

USDA SELECT: The lowest grade of beef, and not recommended for grilling. Previously known as ‘Good’ or ‘Generic’ beef, it lacks the quality traits of higher grades.

Understanding Aged Beef

Steak Grilling Tips

4 Steps to Great Steak

Other Definitions

Natural - A product containing no artificial ingredient or added color and is only minimally processed.

Organic - Organic agriculture is an ecological production-management system that promotes and enhances biodiversity, biological cycles, and soil biological activity. It is based on minimal use of off-farm inputs and on management practices that restore, maintain, and enhance ecological harmony.

Free Range Poultry - Birds that have access to a common outdoor yard for a few minutes each day. This marketing term has no bearing on quality and considered by most in the industry as a fallacy. Get more details

Cage Free Poultry - An animal raised in an indoor house, protected from the environment, but runs free within the house.

Branding - Many companies ‘brand’ their meats with terms such as ‘Certified Angus’, ‘Angus Reserve’, ‘Maverick Ranch’, ‘Certified Tender’, ‘Cattlemen’s Collection’, ‘Coleman’s Natural’, ‘Tony’s’ and so on. While brand names often imply quality, they are not a guarantee of quality – this can be determined by the USDA Grade and extent of aging by the butcher. Many catchy names are simply a disguising a lower quality / cheaper grade of meat. Know the grade you are buying!

USDA - United States Department of Agriculture established in 1862 by President Lincoln called “the peoples department”, among many other functions serves to protect the United States Food-Chain, both producers, & consumers. Continually dedicated to always improve the quality & safety of Americas agriculture, and the American people.

Made with Organic Ingredients - Should be named “mostly organic”, because by law they are only required to contain 74% organic ingredients. Not 100% organic.

Enhanced - Many products (usually pork, poultry, and beef) are fine-needle injected & pumped with a brine solution of water, salt, broth, or other ingredients, typically 11-15% in weight. Look closely on the label, as it must be disclosed.