Understanding How the USDA Grades Beef

If you're a steak lover, then you’ve probably noticed the U.S. Department of Agriculture's beef grades on meat labels. The USDA grades beef to help consumers differentiate between high quality and poor quality beef. The USDA provides quality grades and yield grades.

What are USDA beef grades?

Yield Grades

Yield grades specify how much usable lean meat there is on the carcass. Beef with higher grades have more marbling and usually come from younger cows. Yield grades range from 1 to 5.

Yield 1 is the highest possible grade, while the lowest is 5. Beef graded Yield 1 has the greatest lean to fat ratio.

Quality Grades

Quality grades indicate the amount of fat marbling. Beef with higher grades are more tender, juicier and more flavorful. USDA Prime is the best quality grade.

1. USDA Prime 2. Higher Choice3. USDA Choice4. USDA Select 5. Standard6. Commercial7. Utility 8. Cutter 9. Canner

1. USDA Prime

USDA Prime is the highest quality beef grade. Steaks labeled USDA Prime come from young, well-fed beef. This beef has abundant marbling and is the most tender and flavorsome.

USDA Prime beef accounts for only 2% of the world's graded beef.

2. Upper Choice

Though it's not an official USDA grade, Higher Choice – also called Upper 2/3 Choice – is very similar to USDA Prime. Higher Choice beef has a lot of marbling and flavor.

Rastelli Direct's Higher Choice steaksare consistently ranked in the top 4% of all the beef worldwide.

3. USDA Choice

While USDA Choice has less marbling than USDA Prime and Higher Choice, it's still a high quality grade.

About 50% of all graded beef is USDA Choice.

4. USDA Select

USDA Select is uniform in quality and leaner than the higher grades. It's still tender but has less marbling and lacks some of the juiciness and flavor found in the higher grades.

Lower Quality Grades

5. Standard6. Commercial7. Utility 8. Cutter 9. Canner

The Standard and Commercial beef grades are the lowest grades found in stores. They have very little marbling and are sold as ungraded or store brand meat.

Utility, Cutter and Canner beef grades are used to produce cheap ground beef and processed foods, such as hot dogs and dog food. These grades are not found on labels and come from older cattle with no marbling. It’s best to avoid the lowest 3 grades.

Contact Rastelli Direct

At Rastelli Direct, you can order gourmet food online and have it conveniently delivered right to your doorstep. Rastelli Direct only offers the world's top 2 grades of beef – USDA Prime and Higher Choice.

Call 1 (877) 686-3276 to order your beef today.