re: Dispelling Beef Misconceptions on the F&D board

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The only one that really drives me nuts is the “this supermarket’s beef is superior to this supermarket’s beef” one.

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I believe everything you've said, but ...

I usually shop at Kroger and buy a fair amount of meat there.

But I go to Sam's when I want a brisket, pork butts, chuck roasts, etc.

The meat at Sam's is better trimmed and generally appears to be higher quality, even if the same grade. A Sam's pork butt will barely need trimming, but the Kroger one will have $10 worth of fat that goes in the garbage. Brisket is worse. One from Kroger had a huge chunk of loose fat hidden in the cryovac. (That was the last brisket Kroger will ever sell me.)

Maybe those stores are big enough that they still get quarters or large cuts and break them down themselves, with their own trimming specs. Maybe they use different suppliers with different standards. Not sure, but the products on the shelf are visibly different.

Do you have any behind the scenes info on this?

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One reason people get confused about meat is the government chose similar names for the grades.

Prime, Choice, and Select. There is nothing that intuitively tells a consumer which is better or worse than the other. One could argue that Select sounds like the top of the heap based on the language.

The grades should be A, B, and C, or something similar that tells anyone, even if they just arrived from another country, which is better.

A five year old who can't read can operate an iPhone, but an adult with a Ph.D. can't buy steak without studying ahead of time. The USDA should ask Apple to rework their grading system.