Phony grass fed beef - According to Ted Slanker

[sbeaudry]

Phony Grass-Fed

I recognize that maybe this an article that would not be carried by SOTT, but it is rather interesting/eye-opening, so I figured I would present it for consideration at least. The gist is that Ted Slanker (of Slanker Grass-Fed Meat - which tests for Omega 3 ratios, but is really quite pricey) was surprised to see grass-fed beef in a Sprouts market with marbling resembling a typical corn-fed steak. He writes

Linda and I were shopping for vegetables and fruit in Yukon, Oklahoma at the Sprouts Farmers Market. Per normal I checked out the meat department and their grass-fed steaks really caught my eye. They were very well marbled and looked similar to meats from Omaha Steaks. My immediate thought was that there’s no way these steaks are grass-fed.

The fresh meat pack I was eyeing was on a “Butcher’s Special” for a quick sale so I bought it. It’s now pictured with this column. I sent it to Lipid Technologies, LLC in Austin, Minnesota. That’s a professional lipid lab that is also home of the Omega-3 test. Their basic fatty acid test can determine if a steak is grass-fed or not. The detailed results are presented below.

“Grass-Fed” is supposed to refer to meat from pasture raised livestock that ate forages or, during inclement weather, were fed hay or grass silage. Of course cattle eat grass but they can also be fed grain. Since steaks from overly fat grain-fed animals are generally more tender, one can understand why the feedlot industry really came into its own after WWII when grain prices came down. Then by the 1960s the overly fat grain-fed meats were causing alarm because saturated fat was being associated with heart attacks. It wasn’t until some years later that scientists started reporting that grain feeding created an Omega-3 deficiency in meats and that was the reason for the heart disease link, not the saturated fats. To this day few people pay attention to the science.

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Long story short, he presents the findings and it appears the meat is not really as grass-fed as one would naturally assume by the label; thus the title he gives the post: phony grass-fed beef. I recommend reading the whole article. Now, the Sprouts in Tucson carries fresh ground "grass-fed" beef, often for about $4 per pound, which is less expensive than anywhere else I've seen. On top of that, most grass-fed ground beef around here is either frozen or in vacuum sealed packages (unless I have a butcher freshly grind something), which impacts the taste quite a bit IMO. The closest value would probably be Whole Foods which carries their level 4 (pasture centric) fresh ground beef sometimes for as low as $5.50/lb on sale. I don't go to WF often but I think it usually is around $7, which is more in line with the rest of the market here. So anyway, yeah, $4 per pound is exciting, but not if it is really just feed lot beef that is mislabeled. My guess is that this is more common than I had really considered, or wanted to consider. I've ordered from Slanker's a few times but only maybe 2 or 3 times because it is pretty expensive. That being said, the man is really into the science and I get email updates on his blog (and occasionally drool at pictures on his website). This post caught my eye and has quite a bit of good sciencey information in there along with links to additional reading... So, maybe it is something SOTT would carry? Either way I found it interesting... and disappointing. And it has some good info packed in there. I recall Ted Slanker being mentioned here before as a grass-fed beef source (I think that's how I discovered his site) and he has some keto friendly high-fat options, and obviously cares about the omega ratios, if anyone here needs a good meat source (and can afford it). Thoughts?

EDIT: quote formatting