Australian beef isn't as 'natural' as it once was

At ShopRite supermarkets, the whole beef tenderloin for filet mignon from Australia is free range and grass fed, and it's cheaper than the same cut raised in the United States, where most cattle are grain fed and kept confined in feedlots before slaughter.

"All natural" is the most overused and meaningless phrase, as shown by these boxes from Perdue, which sells chicken raised in crowded conditions and given harmful animal antibiotics. Perdue has the nerve to call its poultry "premium."

Editor's note: Today, I discuss free-range, grass-fed Australian beef, and a more relaxed shopping experience at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack. 

By VICTOR E. SASSON

Editor

I still buy Nature's Reserve free-range, grass-fed beef from Australia for the meat eaters in my family, even though farmers down under give growth hormones to their herds.

At the ShopRite in Paramus, the whole beef tenderloin for filet mignon from Australia is on sale through today for $6.99 a pound with a store card, cheaper than the same cut raised in the United States.

But farmers who raise beef for Nature's Reserve are now using growth-promoting hormones administered by implanting a pellet in the cattle's ear.

The Web site of Meat and Livestock Australia says consumers face "no appreciable risk" from eating beef raised with growth hormones.

Here is the phone number for "squawks" about Perdue's low-quality chicken.

Limited sale

On Friday, I went to the Paramus ShopRite to buy Nature's Reserve Whole Beef Tenderloin for Filet Mignon (from Australia), which usually is sold in pieces of 5 or more pounds.

But the store didn't have any of those, only smaller pieces of around 2 pounds each, and the sale limits shoppers to one.

So, when I was leaving the store and looking over my receipt, I saw that I paid $8.99 a pound for two of the three pieces and $6.99 a pound, the sale price, for the third.

I went to customer service and argued that since the store didn't have pieces of 5 or more pounds, it should give me the sale price on all three of the smaller pieces.

It did, issuing me a credit of $8.32.

The whole tenderloin can be trimmed and cut thickly into filet mignons or thinly for marinating and grilling on the stove top for Korean-style barbecue.

The Australian beef sold by ShopRite is of far better quality than you'd encounter in Korean barbecue restaurants, which tend to use cheaper cuts.

The ShopRite also had sweet potatoes for 99 cents a pound or 79 cents a pound for 5 pounds or more. 

Update

Perdue's latest marketing ploy is, "We believe in better chicken," but the company doesn't actually promise to raise and sell "better"  or naturally raised poultry.

After 5 p.m. on weekdays, the main aisle at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack usually is wide open.

Organic whole wheat spaghetti in Classico Tomato & Basil pasta sauce and Season-brand anchovies from Costco Wholesale. Two optional ingredients are fresh chopped garlic and diced rind of Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese, also from Costco.

A liter of Chosen Foods 100% Pure Avocado Oil from Mexico was $9.89 at Costco in Hackensack. Besides being made from Haas avocados that are non-GMO verified, the oil is said to have a higher burning point than canola or extra-virgin olive oil.


Afternoon delight

I've tired of fighting the morning crowds at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack, and the panic buying before storms.

My last three trips to the warehouse store have been in the late afternoon, around 5, and they've been a pleasure.

On Thursday, I went through checkout at 5:15 p.m. with, among other items:

Pure avocado oil for salads and cooking, a new item; 2 pounds of sliced, reduced-fat Jarlsberg Lite Swiss Cheese ($8.59); a 3-pound bag of raw U.S. No. 1 almonds ($14.99); three LED 40-watt bulbs, $14.99 after an instant $5 coupon; and six 2-ounce cans of Season-brand Anchovies in pure olive oil ($6.99).

I also picked up a pair of Levi 569 jeans for $24.99 and a pair of dressy Kirkland Signature Men's Pants for $19.99. 


Snack, dinner

I roasted the salt-free almonds in the oven for 1 hour and 2o minutes at 275 degrees, and dusted them with Ground Saigon Cinnamon from Costco for snacking on their own or with cheese and fruit.

The anchovies, from Morocco, went into a large, covered pan with a 32-ounce bottle of Classico Tomato & Basil pasta sauce, a small can of tomato sauce, two cans of Moroccan sardines in tomato sauce (chopped), a few ounces of extra-virgin olive oil and red-pepper flakes.

I brought the sauce to a boil, lowered the flame and added a pound of organic whole wheat spaghetti from Whole Foods Market that had been boiled for about 10 minutes or until the pasta was al dente, cooked them together for another minute or two, mixing them well, and turned off the fire.

I ate the seafood spaghetti with grated Pecorino Romano Cheese.

What Australians say about their lamb

Image via Wikipedia

Australia exports beef, lamb and goat meat.

Here is some material from the Web site of Australian lamb producers. Nothing specific is said about raising sheep without antibiotics and growth hormones, though that's suggested:

Australian Lamb: Five Things to Know

1. Australian lamb is a high quality and convenient protein.

• From free-range/naturally fed lambs
• Free of artificial additives
• Naturally lean and tender, trimmed of excess fat and bone
• Delicious, mild flavor

2. Australian lamb is good, and good for you!

• Australian lamb is an all-natural product. Australian lambs are raised naturally on lush green pastureland.
• Lamb is a valuable source of protein, minerals and B-group vitamins including niacin, thiamin and riboflavin.

* Data Source; USDA, 1999 Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, Supplementary Data on Australian Lamb.

3. Australian lamb is available at retailers across the country.

Look for the Product of Australia stamp, as Australian lamb is marketed under a number of different brands in the United States including: Southern Cross, Aussie Lamb Brand, Country Meadow, Opal Valley and Mt. Grambie.

4. Australian lamb recipes for every night of the week are available for free from www.australian-lamb.com.

5. Many of America’s finest chefs use Australian lamb in their restaurants, including Anita Lo of Annisa in New York City.

In addition to lamb and beef, Australia is now exporting goat meat. See: Australian goat meat

American producers say Australia can sell its beef and lamb here for less than U.S. products, because costs are lower in that country.

Shrill sales circular from Fairway Market

Image via Wikipedia

New York-based Fairway Market has been pushing U.S. prime beef since it opened a store in Paramus this year, but its latest sales circular has a shrill tone and the text is full of exclamation marks. I guess all of this is designed to distract shoppers from knowing how the cattle were raised.

"This is what we're talking about!" and "Great food! Great prices! Only at Fairway!" are two of the large-type sentences displayed around a seasoned USDA prime porterhouse steak with grill marks, on sale Jan. 1-7 for $8.99 a pound. 

Prime is the top grade assigned to beef by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (choice and select are the other grades) and signifies that this meat has the highest fat content.

But that's it. Prime can be raised conventionally, with growth hormones, antibiotics and animal by-products -- bits of dead animals -- in the feed. The circular is silent on how the cattle were raised. 

The ad text says, "This is serious steakhouse steak! This ain't no supermarket steak! Could there be anything more glorious on the face of the Earth! We think not." 

Well, little, old me thinks so. The cattle could be free range, rather than being confined in enormous, manure-filled feed lots (the animals are usually covered in manure when they enter, or are dragged, into the slaughterhouse, and feces often gets into ground beef). They could be grass fed, instead of being pumped full of grain, which can make them sick, and animal byproducts could be banned from their feed.

I'm sure this prime beef tastes good and $8.99 a pound is a great price, but you can find grass-fed beef on sale at Whole Foods Market, also in Paramus, for around $9.99 a pound. What do the arrogant New York owners of Fairway have to say about that?

Strategies for avoiding beef

For the past month, we haven't knowingly eaten beef in a restaurant or at home, as we try to boost our already large intake of fish, pasta, vegetables and fruit.

We haven't been able to give up poultry, though, and rely on antibiotic-free chicken or turkey for home-cooked meals at least once a week. And we have had a couple of meals of naturally raised Australian lamb. But we also have had dinners of falafel and cheese-and-spinach ravioli, and try to eat a salad with every meal. We don't eat dessert, preferring fresh and dried fruit and nuts, though we occasionally eat sweet rice cakes or other cakes stuffed with red bean paste (Korean or Japanese).

Only my wife's and son's complaints prevent me from preparing pasta two times a week. And I usually have to serve it with drug-free chicken meatballs or sausage I get at Costco.

Having said all this, I did notice today that ShopRite will be putting on sale free-range, grass-fed whole beef tenderloin from Australia, for $4.99 a pound with a store card, from Dec. 6-12 at  the Rochelle Park, Paramus and Englewood stores. Average weight is 6 to 8 pounds. We have bought this beef in the past to prepare Korean barbecue, which used to be one of my son's favorite meals.

Image via Wikipedia

What do "cage free" and "free range" mean?

"The USDA doesn't regulate the use of the term 'cage free' at all," Consumer Reports On Health reported in its February 2009 newsletter. "And it uses 'free range' only for poultry, not other meat or eggs. Even for chicken, the term doesn't mean much -- 5 minutes of open-air access daily is all it takes to qualify."

This raises a couple of questions. Why is Murray's chicken, the drug-free brand sold at Fairway Market, called "free-roaming" and not "free-range"? Shop-Rite advertises Australian beef as "free range," which would seem to be a violation of USDA rules. Or is Australian beef exempt from U.S. rules, even though it is sold here?

Praising Australian beef and lamb

Why can't the United States produce high-quality, free-range beef and lamb for a reasonable price, such as the Australian products I have been buying at ShopRite and Costco for years?

For dinner tonight, I ate about half of an Australian lamb rib roast, which I trimmed and cut into chops, along with a salad of Jersey tomatoes and peaches. The leftover chops will make another dinner. The grass-fed lamb is sweet and tender, raised without antibiotics or growth hormones. The chops spent about 10 minutes under the broiler for medium rare (turned once), seasoned with only salt and black pepper.

Costco sells the rib roast for $9.99 a pound (mine cost $11.49). Australian lamb shoulder chops are cheaper, but I have searched in vain for them in recent weeks at ShopRite, which has instead offered USDA lamb. U.S. producers make no claims that their lamb is raised naturally.

About 10 days ago, my dinner was two small steaks, no more than 7 ounces or 8 ounces total, cut from that grass-fed, free-range Australian beef tenderloin I bought on sale at ShopRite for $2.99 a pound with a Price Club Card. (In other words, they gave it away.) I seasoned it with steak rub from Costco and cooked it rare to medium rare: The steaks were deliciously chewy and beefy.