how does meat inspection actually work?

Question

There is a bunch of fresh meat inside hundreds of grocery stores all across the US. I have never, ever, been inside a grocery store in my life and have seen meat not USDA prime.

First off who is actually rating this meat? I cannot fathom that every farm is shipping their meat to an USDA lab where each carcass is tested, graded, then sent to the grocer/butcher.

So how does meat actually get its grade? What happens to meat that doesn’t pass? And how does the consumer actually believe that every cut of meat truly *is* being inspected and that the “USDA” sticker isn’t just the equivalent of slapping a meaningless “organic” label on the package.

In: Economics

Answer 1

Meat is inspected and graded while being processed at the slaughterhouse, not at the farms. There are full time inspectors that inspect every carcass, by law.