Questions about meat grading

Quoted message said:

For the past few years, the meat that's been advertised and labeled as
"choice" has more gristle and is tougher than it was in the past. It
looks more like the "select" grade that's sold by another store and is
labeled as such.

Probably. This is not new. over 40 yrs ago, one or two top grades of
choice could be labeled and sold as prime. I suspect this is true of
lower grades as well. Beef industry lobbyist and govt sell-outs and
all that....

nb

Quoted message said:

I'd like to hear from a meat cutter about this.
Thanks.

Prime, Choice, Select, Standard, Commercial, Utility, Cutter and Canner.

Look at: http://www.ams.usda.gov/kidsweb/beefgrades.htm
for representative photos.

gloria p

Quoted message said:

For the past few years, the meat that's been advertised and labeled as
"choice" has more gristle and is tougher than it was in the past.

You're teeth are getting duller.

Quoted message said:

Were the standards changed?

Not recently. Choice grades of beef can range from almost Prime
to slightly better than Select - It's a pretty wide margin. There
are sub-grades of Choice, but they're not labeled as such.

What kind of steaks are you buying? Even on Select beef, I don't
run into something too chewy or gristly to eat.

Quoted message said:

I'd like to hear from a meat cutter about this.

Then perhaps you should be posting in alt.fan.meat-cutting.

-sw

janospet said:

For the past few years, the meat that's been advertised and labeled as
"choice" has more gristle and is tougher than it was in the past. It
looks more like the "select" grade that's sold by another store and is
labeled as such.

Were the standards changed, am I being cheated, or is the meat being
sold as "choice" at the bottom of the range?
I'd like to hear from a meat cutter about this.
Thanks.

It's very easy for meat markets to cheat... there are two kinds of
meat markets, those who give the customer the most value for their
dollar and those that give the customer the least value for their
dollar... you need to shop elsewhere.