Thinking Outside the Box

It’s a conundrum that’s been a long time coming. Carcass weights are increasing at the same time consumers are looking for smaller portion sizes. To help combat this issue, innovations in beef merchandising have stepped up to the plate.

Bridget Wasser, senior director of meat science and technology for the Beef Innovations Group – funded by the Beef Checkoff, said, “We’re about the consumer – they’re the reason we’re in business.”

It’s no secret that consumers want to know more about their food and are demanding more from the beef industry’s product. According to Wasser, what they demand the most is quality. But, not quality in terms of the USDA grading system. Quality to the consumer combines several different characteristics.

“When consumers are asked about quality they automatically think of taste and the three major attributes of taste are tenderness, juiciness and flavor,” she said. “Our goal is to offer the best possible eating experience every time a consumer chooses beef – consistency is key.”

To help add value to the industry from a retail and foodservice standpoint and to ensure a great eating experience for consumers, meat scientists are being innovative with ways to fabricate traditional cuts from beef carcasses.

“Historically, middle meat cuts (tenderloin, sirloin, ribeye) tended to sell themselves and muscles of the chuck and round were of less value because they were perceived as less tender being used for locomotion,” Wasser said. “The second most tender muscle is actually in the chuck and it’s known as the Flat Iron steak.”

Muscle profiling research is the cornerstone of the Beef Checkoff’s work on innovation with new fabrication methods and the research helped find diamonds in the rough.

For example, research identified tender muscles in the shoulder clod, but traditional fabrication methods didn’t allow access. Due to this, meat scientists have changed beef cutting methods and are encouraging single muscle fabrication.

“With single muscle fabrication, we now we have access to all surfaces of the muscle. There is always going to be a seam of fat that runs between muscles and sometimes there’s connective tissue, which is a barrier to tenderness,” she said. “We can now remove barriers to quality, and make sure we’re cutting across the grain, which is hard to do with multiple muscles present as they lay in different directions.”

Three new cuts from the shoulder clod were released by the Beef Checkoff in the early 2000s and the Petite Tender has become a real success story. The seventh most tender muscle, there are only two Petite Tender’s in the beef carcass and it’s in high demand. According to Wasser, packers are fabricating the muscle in the plant and bagging around 20 together to distribute to food service establishments. The industry is selling between 30-40 million pounds of Petite Tender per year. Currently, there is more demand than we can supply.

During the late 2000s, the Chuck Eye Steak was released. In the food service world it’s referred to as the Del Monico Steak and is popular because it eats like a ribeye, but at the chuck price. Wasser looks for more value to come from this cut in the future.

Phil Bass, meat scientist for Certified Angus Beef, agrees that the beef industry is making progress by adjusting cutting styles.

One of the big accomplishments of the beef community is the way we’re taking these muscles apart to produce more desirable cuts of beef. Just like with the chuck, meat scientists have had success with creating more value with the top sirloin as well.

“Meat cutting is easy – find the seams. It’s like taking apart a puzzle,” Bass said. “The top sirloin is one we haven’t taken the knife to properly. We need to liberate this piece of meat and produce a boneless cut. The top sirloin butt does have a lot of bone attached to it.”

He noted there are several muscles within it that can be appealing steaks. The top sirloin butt is a large piece of meat and fabrication methods decrease the overall diameter, which allows for the ability to cut thicker steaks in a smaller portion size. This is what people are looking for, especially in the food service sector.

“For chefs cooking a 4-ounce steak that’s a half-inch thick there are basically two degrees of doneness – raw and cremated,” Bass said. “So a new cut we’re helping to merchandise, the top sirloin filet or baseball cut, can be eight ounces and an inch and a half thick. The size gives chefs more to work with and it really stands up on the plate – chefs like altitude. It looks good and is more of a value type item, but is still a great eating experience.” 

Meat scientists are constantly looking to find the answers to what is next for beef, how can we do more with less, and how can beef continue to meet consumers’ needs tomorrow, and for years to come. Education is the first step and meat scientists are making efforts in teaching industry stakeholders how to merchandise our product. It’s important for producers to know what is next for their product and the future looks exciting.