Carbon Monoxide in beef? - Have you ever purchase a steak from your local market that was a beautiful bright red color and then turned it over to find the back side had a brownish tinge?  Here's why, In 2004 the FDA approved a gas mixture of carbon monoxide (yes, this is the same gas that comes out of the back of your car), carbon dioxide, and nitrogen for the sole purpose of maintaining a desirable bright red color for meat products that sit in retail coolers. This gas mixture has the ability to maintain this artificial color for up to 15 days. Normally beef in a plastic wrappers would start looking a bit worn and brown after 5 days, this gas mixture gives it an extra 10 days of shelf life. 

According to the FDA, these gasses are harmless to the consumer but the real danger is the fact these gasses do nothing to inhibit the growth of microorganisms, increasing the danger that that bright red steak you could be well past it's prime while exhibiting no visual indications.

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Our processor uses no gasses in the packaging process. 

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Steroids? Since the 1950's the FDA has approved a number of steroid hormone drugs to be used in beef cattle. These steroids are injected into young cattle usually behind the ear in the form of a small plastic capsule that subsequently delivers a time release dosage of steroids to the cattle in order to achieve more rapid weight gain. Cattle with these implants generally see an increase in growth from 8% to 15%. Remember, beef is sold by the pound, a modest 10% gain in weight equates to around an additional $170 per head.  

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We do not, nor will we ever use steroids in our animals. 

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Ground Beef - When ground beef is produced at one of the large packing facilities it is referred to as 80/20, this means that it is 80% meat and 20% fat. The portions of the beef that are used for ground beef are the scraps and more often, cattle that do not grade well enough to be processed into prime cuts. These sub standard cattle are generally older cattle, bulls, etc.. These cattle are generally lean, so fat must be added to the ground meat to obtain the 80/20 meat to fat ratio and also to increase profitability. Meat is expensive, fat is cheap. Profitability of the meat packer is increased but unfortunately it is usually rendered out in the cooking process and discarded by the consumer.  So in other words, the consumer just paid a 20% premium to dump in the trash. 

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We do not add fat to ground beef. Therefore, you will notice when cooking that there will be much less grease in the pan to be discarded. 

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