I buy my beef in bulk directly from a local rancher. But I remember the days before I lucked into my current freezer, the days when I had to buy beef at the supermarket. Reading and understanding the labels drove me batty.
Labels can make all sorts of vague claims — even claims that don’t seem vague. For nearly an entire year I periodically bought an “all-natural beef” that promised “no antibiotics EVER*” and “no growth hormones EVER*.” Then one day I got curious about those asterisks. I looked on the rest of the packaging to see what the asterisk referred to, but couldn’t find anything. So I asked the guy behind the butcher counter, and he found a pamphlet that comes with the pre-packaged beef. It turns out they were claiming they didn’t use antibiotics or hormones in the processing of the meat. You know, the process of butchering, cutting up, and packaging the meat for retail. What???!!!
I would have killed for a beef label decoder. That’s why I’m presenting you all with this one.