A Butcher in Williamsport, PA Discusses the Specifications of All Natural Beef

April 12, 2017 11:28 pm Published by Leave your thoughts

Today more than ever before, people are putting forth an effort toward eating better to improve their health and wellbeing. Families are now making home cooked meals a priority, which means doing research in order to shop for the most healthful ingredients—like the most nutritious produce, dairy, fish and meats—to consume daily. Once you understand the importance of food quality, it’s not hard to maintain a healthy diet over the long term.

Unfortunately, many food labels are hard to decipher. For example, the natural label on meat should be straightforward, yet it means much more to official food safety and standards services. To get a better understanding, let’s ask a butcher in Williamsport, PA to give us a basic rundown of the specifications of all natural beef:

  • No added hormones: You may notice some beef products are clearly labeled as having “no added hormones” across the fronts of packaging or display cases. What does this mean? It means the beef producer has shown adequate documented proof that they have not used hormones in raising their beef cows. Hormones are used in the food industry to get animals to grow faster and larger but, for health reasons, many consumers choose to avoid meat products that contain added hormones.
  • No antibiotics: Like getting approved for a “no hormones added” label, any beef producer wanting a “no antibiotics” label must show sufficient proof that their beef cattle were without a doubt raised without the use of hormones. Antibiotics are used by some beef farmers to prevent disease from spreading through their livestock, typically because their cows are raised in close proximity to one another.
  • No artificial ingredients: Natural beef products are cuts that contain no artificial ingredients or added color. It’s not unusual for a meat producer to enhance the color of the flesh to be more red, because that’s the color people associate red meat with. You see the vibrant red color and your brain thinks the meat is better when, in fact, you could be buying a substandard product. “No artificial ingredients” means that the cut of beef should only be beef, and free of unnatural substances.
  • Must be minimally processed: The requirement to be minimally processed brings much of the above together: The beef product cannot contain any artificial ingredients or flavors, added coloring, chemical preservatives or other synthetic ingredients. Furthermore, for the beef to be labeled as natural, it mustn’t be processed in a way that leads to the significant altering of the beef product’s basic form. All natural beef may go through a preparation process to quell health and safety concerns, but it cannot be highly processed.

The meat specifications above are in place to make sure companies in the food industry follow proper food standards and to inform you, the consumer, of what you are eating.

If you want to start buying all natural beef and other cuts of meat and poultry from a genuine butcher in Williamsport, PA, look no further than Tony’s Delicatessen & Fresh Meats. Visit our shop today!

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