A few weeks ago I was looking at some meat at the store and just stood there, feeling a bit dumbfounded and overwhelmed at the dozens of labels on the packages meant.
When did buying meat become so darn difficult?! Why do I feel like I need a dictionary to know what type of ground beef I’m buying?
Here’s the kicker – I’m not going in with a blank slate. I know what organic means. I also know that “natural” isn’t always regulated (so I ignore it) and that hormones aren’t supposed to be in poultry (so “no hormones” doesn’t mean anything there).
Am I am expert? Not by a long shot, but to be frank – neither are most of you. We’re just ordinary folk trying to buy dinner!
Fed up, I decided to do the dirty work and finally figure out what all the labels on meat mean, once and for all!
Meat Labels Decoded: 16 Definitions You Should Know
Cage-free
Specific to hens, it means the hens were not raised in cages. Does not mean they have access to outdoors.
Certified
Implies that the USDA evaluated the meat for a certain quality (class, grade, etc.) and the meat met the standards.
Free Range / Free Roaming
Specific to poultry, it means that the animal has been allowed access to the outside. Quality, size and time of access to outside is not regulated.
Fresh (Poultry)
Specific to poultry, means that the poultry is whole and never been below 26F (when poultry freezes). This poultry should not be hard to the touch or frozen.
Grain-fed
The animal was fed grain at some point in time. If an animal was ever fed grain, it cannot be labeled grassfed.
Grassfed
A USDA term requiring the animal “have continuous access to pasture during the growing season.” In order to be used in marketing, the animal should have been fed nothing but grass from weaning to harvest. Has no bearing on antibiotics, hormones or confinement (so the animal may be confined to a pen and fed grass rather than graze). May be imported.
Note: Some companies that use this label actually feed the animal grain to supplement or to finish. This would be mislabeling according to the USDA term.
AGA-Certified Grassfed
Conducted by a third-party, certifies that the animal has eaten nothing but grass from weaning to harvest, has not been confined, never given antibiotics or hormones and is produced in the United States.
Grass Finished
Has no legal meaning. By USDA definition of “grassfed” above, the animal must be fed nothing but grass (and off-season grass-like items like hay) its entire life. Therefore, grassfed animals ARE grass finished by definition, making this purely a marketing claim. This is not a frequently used term, so ask questions if you can.
Natural
A USDA term that means the product contains no artificial ingredients, added color and is minimally processed (i.e. was processed in a way that does not fundamentally alter the product). The label must also explain the meaning of the term natural (such as no artificial ingredients, etc.). Has no bearing on access to outdoors, antibiotics, growth hormones or organic.
Note: This USDA term applies to meat and poultry only. It does NOT apply to any other types of foods. For the record, the FDA has not yet defined the term “natural” for food.
Naturally-Raised
A USDA term that means the animal has never been fed animal by-products, growth hormones or antibiotics. The animal could, however, be fed grain or grass and/or confined.
No Antibiotics – Red Meat and Poultry
May also be labeled as “Raised Without Antibiotics, No Antibiotics Ever, No Antibiotics Administered, No Antibiotics Added.” Allowed if sufficient documentation shows that no antibiotics were administered – BUT each producer is free to develop their own antibiotics standards and terminology.
Note: The following terms are NOT allowed on meat labels: no antibiotic residues, antibiotic-free, drug-free, chemical-free, no antibiotic growth promotants
No Added Hormones – Beef
May also be labeled as “Raised Without Added Hormones, No Hormones Administered or No Synthetic Hormones.” The labels “Hormone Free” and “No Hormones” are incorrect since natural hormones are present. Allowed if sufficient documentation shows that no hormones were administered.
No Added Hormones – Pork and/or Poultry
Hormones are not allowed in raising hogs or poultry, therefore, the claim “no hormones added” cannot be used on the labels of pork or poultry unless it is followed by a statement that says “Federal regulations prohibit the use of hormones.”
Organic
A USDA term meaning the animal was raised without synthetic antibiotics or synthetic hormones. Fed vegetarian, pesticide- and herbicide-free feed that did not contain GMO’s. Organic has no bearing on whether the animal was grassfed or grain-fed.
Pasture Raised
While used often in articles and by producers, this has no legal meaning. It’s a self-made claim without any verification. Ask questions if you can.
rBGH-free
Animal was raised without the use of the GMO hormone recombinant bovine growth hormone.
Third-Party Certifications
These are labels are provided by third-party organizations – a group outside the producing company and the USDA. Each certification has their own standards (and some are lengthy), so I’m leaving links for you to further investigate if you’d like.
What’s important to note here is that these labels are not government issued or regulated. They are voluntary, sought out by the producing company and usually used in an effort to market the quality of their meat to you.
- American Humane Certified
- Animal Welfare Approved
- Certified Humane
- Food Alliance Certified
- Global Animal Partnership
- Humanely Raised – a label provided by various animal right programs/organizations
- Process Verified Program
- USDA Process Verified (the only exception to the above rule)
Although buying from a farmer you trust is always best, choices from the supermarket or a local butcher can be made better when you know what all the labels mean!
Have you run into any labels that you hadn’t heard of before? Are you surprised by any of the labels above?
Source 1
I need help…89 yrs of age and all this is new to me …I want organic & would love truly pasteurized animals…
I love this article!! So in your opinion what is the best meat to buy?
As close as you can get to the farm, the better!
Hello 🙂
I really enjoy your articles and found this one particularly interesting! ALL labels are very confusing, especially when the government does not have very strict regulations to being with, yet they also seem to contain loop holes. Buying as local and natural as possible is ideal!
I was hoping to grab your hand guide to take shopping but it seems to be only the short code in the box and is not clickable… would you be able to send it to me?!
Thanks so much!
BettyS
Hi Betty! I understand your frustration on labeling. It’s like trying to learn a foreign language without any grammar rules, lol. Thanks for letting me know about the short code too. If you send me an email, I’d be happy to pass the download over to you!
It is like learning a different language… for sure! YW & Sounds great! Thank you so much, I am headed to your contact info lol
Yes, a cow that is grass-finished would inherently be a cow that is grass-fed. Perhaps you’re thinking of grain-finished? That term is used much more commonly than grass-finished, as the practice of giving cows grain to bulk them up is common too. And butchers would use “grain-finished” pretty often too.
I am also somewhat confused. My understanding is that the label “grass fed” simply means they have access to grass but doesn’t guarantee that they their diet was not supplemented with grain or that the cow wasn’t finished on grain. I personally have never seen the term “grain finished” used.
I’ve never seen the terms “grass-finished” used either, but wanted to include it since it seems to be on labels often enough to be mentioned in the research I found. According to the USDA, to be labeled “grass-fed” means it cannot be fed grain, BUT some producers do feed the animal grain to either supplement or to finish. If this is the case though, the meat should NOT be labeled as grass-fed per USDA marketing standards.
Also, “grassfed” doesn’t guarantee that the animal wasn’t confined… so they could technically “have access” to outdoors but be fed grass in a lot.
Does that help to clarify?
Being grassfed is not guaranteed to be grass finished; but a 100% grassfed or grass fed & grass finished label is making claim that cows have not been supplemented. Cattle can be grassfed then supplemented (based on weather–think Kerrygold) or finished (think raised in New Zealand-Finished in U.S.) on grain, etc.
Pastured is a confinement issue. A pastured animal is always on pasture.
Hi Ebbys Mama – certainly not trying to argue, but here’s the documentation from the USDA:
http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/ams.fetchTemplateData.do?template=TemplateN&navID=GrassFedMarketingClaimStandards&rightNav1=GrassFedMarketingClaimStandards&topNav=&leftNav=GradingCertificationandVerfication&page=GrassFedMarketingClaims&resultType=
Or, click the “Grass Fed Marketing Claims” link from this page: http://askkaren.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1501/~/what-is-grass-fed-meat%3F
I think this may be another case of discrepancy between what SHOULD be on the label, what IS on the label and what society THINKS the label means. According to the USDA, meat labeled “grassfed” CANNOT come from a cow that is fed grain. The only exception would be inadvertent exposure, to which must be documented… unless I’m not reading this correctly. Do you have a source to share that claims otherwise?