The fraudulent scheme
, with government responses due Dec. 22, and any reply by the defense due by Dec. 29.
According to USDA, beef is evaluated by highly-skilled meat graders using a subjective characteristic assessment process and electronic instruments to measure meat characteristics.
These characteristics follow the official grade standards developed, maintained, and interpreted by the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service.
Beef is graded in two ways: quality grades for tenderness, juiciness, and flavor; and yield grades for the amount of usable lean meat on the carcass.
Prime beef is produced from young, well-fed beef cattle. It has abundant marbling Choice beef is high quality, but has less marbling than Prime. Finally, Select beef is very uniform in quality and normally leaner than the higher grades. It is fairly tender, but, because it has less marbling, it may lack some of the juiciness and flavor of the higher grades.
(To sign up for a free subscription to Food Safety News, click here)