FAQ

Q: What is grass-fed beef?

A. Grass-fed beef comes from animals that have grazed in pastures their entire lives. * This differs from many conventional beef cattle, which spend most of their lives on pasture, but are finished on a carefully balanced, grain-based diet. * As a result of the forage-based diet grass-fed animals receive throughout the balance of their lives, grass-fed beef tends to grade "Select" (with slight intramuscular fat or marbling), giving it the same level of leanness as conventional beef graded "Select". * Grass-fed beef is not necessarily raised organically. Consumers can recognize organic products by looking for the "USDA Certified Organic" label. A 3.5-ounce serving of grass-fed beef offers less than one tenth of a gram (or, specifically, 15 milligrams) more omega-3 than the same serving of grain-fed or conventional beef. * All beef contributes a relatively small percentage of omega-3 fatty acids to the average American's diet compared with other food sources. * Salmon, for example, contains between 0.68 and 1.83 omega-3 fatty acids per one 3-ounce serving - as much as 47 times more than beef. Research suggests tenderness is considered one of the most important palatability traits influencing consumer satisfaction with beef. * In 2003, a University of Nebraska, Lincoln review of nine studies on tenderness concluded that grass-fed cattle produce beef is less tender than beef from grain-fed cattle (in both shear force and taste panel testing). * The analysis of existing flavor panel studies also showed consumers preferred the overall flavor of grain-fed beef compared to grass-fed beef. This study can be found at: http://www.ianr.unl.edu/pubs/beef/mp80.pdf. Source: Nebraska Beef Council 2006