Beef is beef is beef -- sort of

IF you’ve ever stood at the meat counter, pondering whether to spring for the various types of niche beef -- or to just buy plain old steak -- you’re not alone.

“Consumers do not understand the difference between all-natural, grass-fed and organic beef,” says Rick Machen, who grew up on a cattle ranch and is now a livestock specialist at Texas A&M; University. “I don’t understand them myself and I’m a university professor. It’s something that the industry needs to work on so that consumers fully appreciate and understand the differences between those products.”

That hasn’t stopped consumers from plunking down at least $2 more per pound at supermarkets -- and sometimes far more at high-end restaurants -- for various types of niche beef such as certified Black Angus and free range. “In terms of nutrition, there is little appreciable difference,” Machen notes.

Nor are there even clear definitions. Although a standard for certified organic beef was implemented by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2002, there is no government definition for free-range beef. The USDA also doesn’t have a standard for Black Angus cattle, but it enforces a voluntary industry definition that dictates hide color, neck size, degree of marbling, age and other features.

In May, the USDA proposed a new standard for grass-fed beef after an attempt in 2002 produced strong public criticism. (The new deadline for public comments on grass-fed beef is Aug. 10.) Under consideration: Cuts of beef labeled “grass-fed” must come from steers that have eaten grass at least 99% of the time from weaning to the slaughterhouse.

That may sound more natural than standard beef, “but the way we produce beef right now is almost all grass-fed,” says Jose Pena, an agricultural economist also at Texas A&M.; “Eighty percent of calves are born in the spring and weaned in September.” After that, they graze on grass or mesquite, depending on the region where they live.

If the proposed USDA standard is finalized, “grass-fed” steer will keep grazing until they go to the slaughterhouse. The others, including many certified organic steers, will likely spend their last couple of months eating corn, barley or other grain in a feed lot to add the final 250 to 400 pounds before slaughter.

It’s this process “that gives steak the marbling and makes the fat white,” says Pena, a former beef rancher. Otherwise, the fat is “yellow and kind of funky-looking and the beef has a grassy taste,” he says.

Certified organic beef, on the other hand, must come from animals that have not been treated with antibiotics or hormones. All their food, from mothers’ milk to grassy pastures and feedlot grain, must also be certified organic. Organic beef is often marketed as a safer bet for those concerned about mad cow disease. But neither organically raised livestock nor other cattle in the United States are allowed to eat feed that contains ground-up protein from other mammals -- a practice that was linked to the spread of the illness in animals and has been banned by the USDA since 1997.

Where niche beef can sometimes have a slight nutritional edge is in the type of fat it contains, says Chris Kerth, associate professor of animal sciences at Auburn University in Alabama. Grass-fed beef contains “anywhere from two to 10 times as much omega-3 fatty acids as regular beef,” Kerth says. These healthy fats are known to be important for the brain, for the heart and possibly for preventing depression.

Plus, grass-fed beef has a healthier ratio of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. In the last century, Americans have shifted to more processed foods that contain far more omega-6s than omega-3s. Studies suggest that there could be health advantages to returning to a diet that has much more omega-3s. Even so, “if increasing omega-3s is your goal,” says Keecha Harris, a spokesperson for the American Dietetics Assn., “you’ll get 35 times more in a serving of salmon” than of steak.

According to a recent review of the research conducted on grass-fed beef, other possible nutritional advantages include more vitamin E, which also could extend the shelf life of the meat, and more conjugated linoleic acid, a type of healthy fat that may reduce risk of cancer, diabetes and heart disease and could help cut body fat.

But what about taste? In two independent market-research taste tests -- one conducted by the University of California, the other by Auburn University -- two-thirds of consumers preferred standard beef to grass-fed.

Or as Machen puts it: “I prefer the grain-fed beef taste, which is just as safe and wholesome as the organic or grass-fed product and it is significantly less expensive.”