THE CELEBRITY FOODS BEEF BLOG

For the safe handling of all food products please visit (http://www.celebrityfoodssafety.com/)

Wholesomeness, quality, nutritive value cost convenience and informative labeling are all things to keep in mind when purchasing beef. Today’s beef producers offer a variety of different types of beef that vary in flavor and cost. The differences are based on the way they are raised.

Grain fed beef is the most common. Grain fed cattle spend most of their lives grazing before moving to a feed lot where they are fed a high concentration of grain for four to six months. It is very tender and has substantial marbling.

Grass finished beef spend their entire lives eating grass in pastures. It is difficult to raise large quantities of grass-finished beef in North America where few regions have the growing season to make it possible. The majority of this type of beef that is sold in the US is imported from Australia and New Zealand. It tends to grade ‘select’ therefore it is considered lean. It is often described as having a distinctly different flavor, sometimes described as ‘gamey’. (http://www.wabeef.org/AboutUs/GrassFedBeef.aspx)

Certified organic beef must meet the USDA National organic program standards set by the Organic foods production act (link to our organic page). Organic beef must be raised with 100% organic feed, cannot be given hormones to promote growth or antibiotics. Sick animals cannot be denied antibiotics if they get sick, but they must be removed from the program.

Natural/Branded Beef- By definition all beef is natural. To be able to label beef natural, the beef must be free of artificial coloring, flavoring, chemical preservatives or any other artificial or synthetic ingredient. The label of natural does not relate to the way it is raised or what it is fed. An example of ‘branded ‘beef may be a product labeled “Corn fed” or “free range”

There are several factors to consider when trying deciding what is best for your family in terms of the type of beef you purchase. Regardless of the quality grade of type of beef, there are some cuts that are naturally tenderer than others. Cuts from less used muscles along the back- the rib and loin sections will always be tenderer than those from the more active parts such as the shoulder, flank and leg. In general, the more tender the cut the milder the flavor. The harder a muscle works the more intense the beef flavor is.

How you plan on preparing a dish makes a difference in terms of the cut needed. All beef can be made tender depending on the preparation methods.

• The filet mignon, which is cut from the tenderloin, porterhouse, T-bone, rib eye, and sirloin are generally the most expensive because they are naturally tender and require almost no additional preparation.
• Steaks such as top and bottom round, full-cut round, shoulder, which is the chuck, flank and skirt steaks, will all become tender when they have been marinated. These cuts are very reasonably priced and versatile from a recipe point of view.
• Pot roasts, the brisket, blade roasts, chuck roasts and short ribs need to be cooked slowly; generally braised (cooked with water) in order for them to be tenderized. Taking the time to cook these cuts is worth it, as they have intense beef flavor.  

Armed with that information, you will be in for some great meals. Did you know that in addition to providing an extensive selection of the best beef products you can buy, Celebrity Foods also offers nightly audio recipe ideas? True story.

Just browse to http://www.celebrityfoods.com/content/celebritydelights.aspx where you can sign up to receive nightly audio recipes tested and narrated by food experts Melinda Lee and Ronna Reed.

In the early 1920’s The US shipping board (which supervised US merchant vessels) asked the USDA to evaluate beef according to uniform standards in order to ensure uniform quality in contract beef purchases. By 1925, an organized effort was under way within the livestock and retail meat industry to establish a beef grading and stamping service by the Federal Government for all federally inspected plants. After much resistance, experimentation and education a formal, voluntary fee for service program for grading beef was established.(http://marketingoutreach.usda.gov/info/99Manual/grading.htm).

The same year that the grading system was developed, Swift’s Premium and Select and Armour’s Star and Quality brands of beef products (two of the major packers of the 1920’s) were instituted and aggressively promoted during the same period when the USDA beef grades of Prime and Choice were first marketed on a national basis. Thus began the branding of beef. A retailer or packer can use the grade and credibility given by the impartial third party grading system along with other value added benefits to market to the consumer.

The USDA grading system focuses on two different aspects, Quality Grades and Yield grades. A quality grade is an evaluation of tenderness, juiciness, and flavor. A yield grade is an estimation of the amount of boneless trimmed high value cuts. In other words; how good does it taste, and how much is there is per carcass.

Quality grade is primarily determined by marbling, which is intramuscular fat, but maturity plays a significant determining factor. Evaluating the amount and distribution of marbling is determined after the ribeye is cut between the 12^th and 13^th rib. Marbling is measured in tenths, per 100 sub units; (e.g., Slight ⁹⁰, Small ⁰⁰, Small ¹⁰). A desirable ribeye will exhibit a good amount of finely dispersed marbling in a firm, fine textured, bright, cherry-red colored lean (muscle). The amount of fat is given a score that puts it into four basic categories; Prime, Choice, Select and Standard. (Insert table from original website page here)

Age is the second factor, which determines the final grade a carcass will receive. The determined physiological age may be different from the actual age in months or years. As an animal grows, its cartilage begins to harden into bone (ossification) starting with the hindquarter and progressing forward. When determining the maturity of a beef carcass, it is visually inspected at the thoracic vertebrae, the sacral vertebrae and rib bones. The color of the flesh is also inspected. The younger the animal, the lighter the color. Once the physiological age is evaluated, Inspectors determine the grade of maturity on a scale of A-E, A being the youngest.

Maturity

Age

30 - 42 months                 B

42 - 72 months                 C

72 - 96 months                  D

96 months or more            E

The Final Quality Grade a carcass receives is based on the relationship between the amount of marbling and maturity for each category.

The Yield Grade of beef is not about quality or palatability. It simply estimates the amount of boneless, closely trimmed retail cuts that the carcass should yield from the round, loin and chuck. Yield is determined based on measuring external fat, carcass weight, the size of the rib eye muscle, and the amount of kidney, pelvic and heart fat. There are 5 yield grades; yield 1 grade denotes the highest yield, number 5 the lowest.

For more information on quality and yield standards please visit The cattlesite. (http://www.thecattlesite.com/articles/751/beef-quality-and-yield-grades)

In 1941 the grade terms for all beef were established as Prime, choice, good (now select), standard, commercial, utility, canner and cutter In 1950 the standards for grading were amended by combining the prime and choice grades and labeling them prime, renaming the good grade choice and dividing commercial grade into two grades, designated by age. Younger animals would fall into the good grade while the rest would remain categorized as commercial. In other words, the packers and retailers wanted to ensure that age played a significant factor in the highest grades. Standards for the other three grades were not affected. 1987 is when the good grade was renamed select. Select sounds much better than good, doesn’t it? In 1989 the standards were revised to allow the official grade to be either quality only, or yield only, or a combination of both. (http://www.ams.usda.gov/lsg/mgc/beefrole.htm)

The prime, choice select and standard grades are given only to beef from young cattle, the commercial grade is restricted to cattle too mature for the top 4 categories but animals of all ages can be included in the utility, canner and cutter grades. Generally speaking, the only grades available on a retail level are the top 4 grading categories. Utility, cutter and canner graded beef is used for sausage, ground beef or cured. There are many urban legends that tell of the lower grades of beef being only fit for pet food or prisoners. Rest assured those stories are false. (http://www.beefboard.org/checmeatinspection.aspx)

All meat on the retail level is inspected on a pass/fail basis. Inspection of beef ensures that it meets US food safety standards for safety wholesomeness and accuracy in labeling. It is either acceptable for human consumption or it is not. Inspection is mandatory, but grading is voluntary and must be paid for. The reality is, is that the grades of Standard and below generally contains a bone to flesh ratio that makes it unrealistic to market to consumers.

There are more than 800,000 individual farms and ranches that produce beef in the United States. With over 100,000,000 head of cattle, the US cattle inventory comprises 10% of the world’s cattle inventory, yet we produce nearly 25% of the worlds beef supply.  Cattle are produced in all 50 states and represents over 60 billion dollars to the economy. There are 1.4 million jobs attributed to the American beef industry. Cattle production represents the largest single segment of American agriculture. Cattle are not native to America; Europeans imported it.  All cattle can trace their origin back to the auroch, but the first signs of domestication date back to 6500 B.C. in the Middle East. Early cattle were used as labor as well as food source. Labor cattle were known as oxen. Over time cattle breeding for the sole purpose of meat or milk production evolved. It wasn’t until approximately 1870 that Americans became large consumers of beef. It was then that the enormous growth of the cattle industry in the west occurred.  The exploration of one of the most important industries in America must begin in Texas.

. The Texas Longhorn is one of the most identifiable images of the Wild West. The breed was a cross between longhorn cattle brought to North America by the Spanish in 1493 and Northern European breeds brought to Texas by the first Anglo American settlers. The climate and range conditions of Texas made it ideal for the herds to multiply substantially. By the end of the civil war it was estimated that there were approximately 5,000,000 longhorns in Texas. They had adapted to be able to survive blizzards, droughts and storms. They did not need much water to thrive. Their toughness and endurance made them uniquely able to survive the rigors of a long trail drive. The abundance of cattle in Texas at the end of the civil war depressed the western cattle market, but prices were still high in the north and east. Even though cattle had been driving out of Texas to California, Louisiana and Missouri since 1836, it was after the civil war that cattle began flowing along the Chisholm, Loving-Goodnight, and Dodge City trails (http://www.thechisholmtrail.com/index.htm) until the market was sated and the ranges of the central and Northern plains were stocked. In 1867 the Kansas Pacific Railroad reached Abilene Texas, establishing a gateway for Texas trail herds to reach eastern consumer markets. In 1878, Gustav Swift, a meat packer, perfected the first refrigerated rail car, and the boom began.  According to Cyber Space Farms (http://ctberspaceag.com/farmanimals/beefcattle/beefhistory.htm) the Longhorn era ended with the fencing of the open ranges and cattle with early maturation characteristics were imported. The most significant import was probably the Hereford. First brought to the States by Henry Clay, in 1817, the first breeding herd was established in 1840 by William H Sothman and Erastus Corning of Albany, New York. The Hereford proved to get fat at an early age. These traits revolutionized American cattle farming. Breeding became more and more important as cattle farming became the powerhouse industry it is today. Maturity, marbling and palatability are three of the most important indicators of high quality beef, and most breeding programs are focused on developing characteristics that ensure weight gain at an early age, hence the Hereford remains one of the most dominant breeds today. (link) (http://www.bovinebazaar.com/history.htm)

One question we strive to answer is: “Is beef good for you?” The answer is most certainly “yes!” From a nutrition standpoint, it is one of the best foods we can eat.

• For Americans, beef is the number one contributor of protein, zinc and vitamin B12 in our diet.
•  To get the same amount of zinc that’s found in a 3 oz. serving of lean beef, you would have to eat thirteen 3 oz. servings of salmon.
•  If it were B12 you’re looking for, you would have to eat 8 3 oz chicken breasts to get the same amount one 3-ounce serving of beef gives you!
• Beef is our second best source for vitamin B6, and number three of iron and niacin.
•  Beef is an excellent source of selenium, phosphorus and riboflavin. All of these nutrients are essential for growth and development.
•  A 3 oz. serving of lean beef will give you  less than 10% of your calories in a 2,000-calorie diet, yet at the same time; it supplies more than 10% of the Daily Value for these nutrients. (http://www.ars.usda.gov/main/site_main.htm?modecode=12354500). If you’re looking for a bang for your buck when it comes to calories, beef packs a punch.

That being said, our biggest health concern regarding beef is centered on it’s fat content. It is suggested by many studies that animal fat is responsible for a whole host of problems. There’s a common misperception that the majority of beef’s fatty acids are saturated. In reality, foods that contain fats come in fatty acid packages containing various amounts of saturated fat, monounsaturated fat and polyunsaturated fat. The same is true of beef.

Compared to a chicken breast, there’s only one more gram of saturated fat in an average 3 oz. serving of the six leanest beef cuts. There are 29 cuts of beef that fall under the USDA’s definition of lean. (http://www.beefitswhatsfordinner.com/nutrition/pdf/LeanCutsWalletGuide.PDF

Two of the most popular are, sirloin and top round steak. (Insert link to our product page).  Everything in moderation as they say; but rest assured, beef is a healthy, nutrient rich delicious addition to your diet.

Is there anything better than the smell of a steak on the barbeque? A pot roast simmering for hours on the stove until it is falling apart, melting in your mouth with rich brown gravy? Beef is one of the most versatile foods we feed our family. It is centerpiece of the meals that we associate with Americana gourmet; hamburgers, chicken fried steak, chili, stew and, of course, Mom’s meatloaf. The amount of beef consumed in the United States averages 65.8 pounds per person, per year. (http://www.beefusa.org/newsindustrystatistics.aspx) Beef holds the number two spot among the most popular proteins. (Poultry is first only if you combine both chicken and turkey). American demand for beef has increased more than 15% since 1998. 8 out of 10 Americans eat beef at home regularly. Considering its popularity, palatability and adaptability we at Celebrity Foods hope to provide a one stop educational resource for beef consumers. As we debunk the myths, explore the history and provide the facts, we hope you enjoy your stay.

To learn more about Celebrity Foods please visit our website at www.celebrityfoods.com

Welcome to the Celebrity Foods beef resource. This site, provided by Celebrity Foods, is designed to provide a one-stop educational resource for consumers of beef. We at Celebrity Foods hope that you will find this information edifying, current, and educational. Whether you are a customer of Celebrity Foods, or came to this site through a search engine, we hope that you enjoy your stay.

Feel free to peruse the information and return often as Celebrity Foods will be updating this page regularly. If you would like to learn more about Celebrity Foods, please visit our corporate website at www.celebrityfoods.com and remember to Eat Well, Live Deliciously!