What does organic beef mean?
Organic beef is from the beef that has grown from the organic food principles. For the organic beef to be said organic, it should be raised from the production that can be verified and the cattle has to meet following criteria. It should be born and also raised in the certified organic pasture. It should never be given the antibiotics; it should never get growth promoting hormones and should be fed in the certified organic grains and grasses. Corn is considered a grain. The animal should be able to access the outdoor.
Organic beef is different from natural beef
When organic label became popular, many people had assumed that a term organic is natural and it is interchangeable this is because of failing to understand the strict regulations that are behind the raising of the certified organic beef. The natural beef means that meat that has been raised to be consumed by the humans, they do not have additives and they are minimal processed. The natural beef producers may have to choose not to give the growth promoting hormones and antibiotics to their cows but there is none who verify what they are saying. The beef that are raised in the feedlots may be labeled as natural from the definition of USDA.
The food can be described natural when there are not preservative, coloring, flavoring or artificial ingredients which had been added in the food. The processed products called ground meat are also counted as the natural foods. In order to be marketed like natural, the product may not have the additives like monosodium glumate and salt.
How to feed organic beef
While looking to know what does organic beef mean, you should know that there are two types of feeding method which the producers should use commonly in delivering the beef products to the customers. The grain fed and grass feed. When the animal is grass fed, such cattle have to continue eating the certified organic grass from the start until the day of being slaughtered. USDA is under the developing guidelines and it is used to define a term called grass-fed.
The animal has to eat 95 percent of the grass diet. The grass fed cattle became leaner compared to the grain fed. The grain finishing produces the cattle that have a high percentage of fat. All the grains used to give the beef, they should be certified as organic in order to make sure that there is integrity of this program.
Foods that should not be feed to organic beef
Animals known to be organic, they should not eat the animal by products, the grains that are genetically changed and the antibiotics. They should not be grown by the use of the chemical fertilizers or the pesticides.
When it comes to what does organic beef mean and who should get the label, you need to know that there are some farmers that raise their animals in the right conditions and who care about organic quality but they cannot afford to have their meat labeled organic since it is too expensive. For the foods to be labeled organic it involves too much record keeping, provides the land that is not exposed to the chemicals in three years and the living of the beef should meet many standards.