Differences in carcass grading schemes used in the USA, Japan and Australia

Abstract

Over the past 30 years there has been increasing pressure for the establishment of a beef, quality grading system in Australia. During this time, many and varied options have been proposed and comparisons have often been made with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Japanese Meat Grading Association (JMGA) systems. Australia has now developed a grading system that is driven by the consumer — Meat Standards Australia (MSA). Although some years (70+) behind the USDA, the Australian model has been scientifically proven to identify product that can achieve a guaranteed level of satisfaction to the consumer. While this paper evaluates the 3 systems and their specific operations, both the USDA and JMGA systems are compared with the potential performance of the MSA system applied on a cut by grade by cooking method basis.