Beef Labels: Grass Fed Beef vs Grain Finished Beef

You’ve likely seen or heard beef described with terms like “grass fed”, “grass finished”, “grain finished”, “organic” and “natural”. But what do these terms and labels actually mean?

All cattle (and we really do mean all) spend the majority of their lives eating grass on pasture.

But beef can be “finished” in a variety of ways. This is why you see different labels on beef like “grass fed beef”, “grass finished beef”, “natural” and “grain finished beef.”

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www.clovermeadowsbeef.com
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GRASS FED BEEF:
This may surprise you, but the USDA doesn’t have an official definition for grass fed. In 2016, the Agricultural Marketing Service, a branch of the USDA, announced in a statement that it was dropping its official definition of “grass fed” because it doesn’t have the authority to define and determine whether grass fed claims are truthful and misleading.

When you stroll through the aisle of your grocery store and see “grass fed”, it will probably be more expensive than a package of beef without that label. Unfortunately, this marketing term doesn’t mean much.


GRASS FINISHED BEEF:
As mentioned above, all cattle spend the majority of their lives eating grass in the pasture. What sets cattle apart is how they’re “finished”, or what they eat at the end of their lives.

Grass-finished cattle spend their entire lives grazing and eating from pastures. Per USDA guidelines, grass-finished cattle may also eat forage, hay or silage. Grass finished cattle may or may not be given FDA-approved antibiotics to treat, prevent or control disease and/or growth-promoting hormones.

Grass finished beef has some great health attributes like more vitamin E, beta-carotene, vitamin C and omega-3 fatty acids compared to grain fed beef. According to some experts both grass-fed and grain-fed beef have benefits and drawbacks. Based solely on the nutrition profile, grass-fed beef is slightly better because of its higher vitamin and CLA content. It is also more protein-dense. However, the differences are only small.

GRAIN FINISHED BEEF:
Grain finished beef spend the majority of their lives eating grass. What makes them different from grass finished beef is that during the last 6-8 months of their lives, grain finished cattle are free to eat a balanced diet of local feed ingredients. The exact grain will differ by farm, but it’s typically things like potato hulls, corn, sugar beets, barley, sorghum or hay.

The terms grain finished beef, grain fed beef and conventional beef are essentially all the same. They refer to cattle that have been raised with the beginning of their life on grass, and then given grain at the end of their lives.

Get more information on our website:
www.clovermeadowsbeef.com