logo
logo
Sign in

The Truth About Grass-Fed Beef: What the Label Means and Why It Matters

avatar
Mary Slanker
The Truth About Grass-Fed Beef: What the Label Means and Why It Matters

The grass-fed beef trend is taking off. The market for grass-fed beef is growing at an incredible rate with more and more people wanting to know everything they can about this meat. However, labeling laws make it difficult to decipher what you're really getting when you purchase grass-fed beef. This article breaks down the various labeling terms and what they mean, so you can make the right choices when shopping for grass fed ground beef or grass fed steaks. 


What is grass-fed beef? 

The label "grass-fed" means that the cow was fed only grass, hay and forage throughout its life. Cows are ruminants, meaning they're built for eating grasses and plants. They have four stomach chambers that allow them to digest plant material more efficiently than other animals. This also allows them to convert inedible matter into human food. 


What does the grass-fed label mean? 

The USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) defines grass-fed as cattle fed for their entire lives only on pasture and forage, with no grain or grain byproducts. Cattle can graze in rangeland, pasture or paddocks and still be considered grass-fed if they meet these standards. For cows that have been raised on grain and then transitioned to pasture and forage, producers must document how long they've been on a 100 percent forage diet to qualify for the label. 


What does a cow eat before it's labeled "grass-fed"? 

Before being sent to slaughter, cows are often kept in feedlots where they're fed corn, grain or soy, which can fatten them up quickly. This helps bring down costs because corn and grain are much cheaper than raising cattle on pasture. However, most experts agree that cattle should primarily eat grass, which is closer to their natural diet of foraging on pasture and grazing on land. 


Why Grass Matters for Beef Cattle 

Cattle are ruminant animals, which means that their digestive systems are very different from ours. Their four-part stomachs are designed for digesting large quantities of plant matter like grass. In fact, that's all they ate until humans domesticated them thousands of years ago. Now we feed them grain, which fattens them up faster but doesn't provide as many nutrients or benefits to our health as grass does. 


Why does it matter what a cow eats?  

It all comes down to fat. Grass fed beef liver has less total fat than grain-fed beef. But more importantly, grass-fed beef has more Omega 3 fats and less Omega 6 fats. Most people get plenty of Omega 6 fats in their diet, so an increased ratio of Omega 3 fats helps to improve cardiovascular health. 


Conclusion 

The first point to consider is that grass fed beef, no matter how it is labeled, is not going to be 100% grass-fed. This particular claim is not regulated by the USDA and farmers are free to state that their product is grass-fed even if they also fed their cattle some grain. You should give these products extra scrutiny when shopping because it's possible to end up with a product that is only 80 or 90 percent grass-fed, which might explain why some people report that grass-fed beef has an inferior flavor to conventional beef. 

 

collect
0
avatar
Mary Slanker
guide
Zupyak is the world’s largest content marketing community, with over 400 000 members and 3 million articles. Explore and get your content discovered.
Read more