Source: Tom Johnston, MEATINGPLACE, 6/22/17


USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) is proposing to include dentition and documentation of actual age as additional methods of classifying maturity of beef carcasses for quality grading.

Currently, the U.S. Standards for Grades of Carcass Beef only include skeletal and muscular evidence as a determination of maturity grouping.

Dentition refers to dental condition.
The proposed revision would allow carcasses of grain-fed steers and heifers determined to be younger than 30 months old by dentition or by documentation of actual age to be included in the youngest maturity group for carcasses recognized as “beef” (A maturity).

USDA is taking comments on the proposed revision, which was published in the Federal Register last week, until Aug. 18.

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