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Will grocery stores carry nothing but prime beef one day?

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HeavyG
HeavyG Posts: 10,349
in Off Topic
Interesting article in my newspaper today. It's an article from Bloomberg written a week ago about the use of DNA analysis in breeding cattle to optimize marbling and other qualities.
"Now choice cuts once found only at white-tablecloth steakhouses are available at the local grocery store. There’s so much elite beef sloshing around these days, companies have taken to slapping fancy names on their products. There are 95 U.S.-government certified beef brands today. Tyson Foods sells Chairman's Reserve and Open Prairie Natural Angus beef; JBS SA has 5 Star Reserve and 1855 Black Angus beef. The democratization of steak has even reached Walmart, which upgraded to certified Angus steaks in 2017."
In a decade or so will every brisket be the equivalent of an SRF Gold? When Prime becomes ordinary what becomes more prime than prime?


“Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.” ― Philip K. Diçk




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  • Skiddymarker
    Skiddymarker Posts: 8,522
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    Great read, thanks for sharing. As long as the basic grading system stays the same or changes consistently, the use of hundreds of marketing terms like Rancher’s Choice, CAB, etc... are being used to differentiate brands which IMO aren’t really that much different. 
    Prime is not as grocery store available in the GWN as it is in the US from my experience. As the article notes, USDA prime is becoming more and more available. 
    Delta B.C. - Whiskey and steak, because no good story ever started with someone having a salad!
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  • The Cen-Tex Smoker
    The Cen-Tex Smoker Posts: 22,970
    edited June 2019
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    Good read! I have kind of followed the evolution of this over the years. When we had the restaurant/grocery store we had a CAB retail steak counter. We bought this from our restaurant supplier and I have still never seen better steaks in a store. The restaurant CAB is clearly different/better (and more expensive) than the stuff you see in the stores. 

    At that time CAB was marketed as high choice or prime (this was before CAB Prime was even a brand- it was all just CAB)  and “the top 3% of all angus cattle” that were graded through USDA. Taking that with a grain of salt, it was very good and hard to get. According to this article, Prime has gone from 1-2% of the herd at that time to now 10%+. This makes sense with the explosions of prime in places like Costco and Sam’s. 

    Kind of fun to see it evolve to what it is now from someone who had an early peek at where this was going. 
    Keepin' It Weird in The ATX FBTX
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