Buying guide · USDA against MSA

Australian vs American beef

Australian and American beef differ less in the animal than in how it is graded, fed and named. The USDA grades the whole carcass Prime, Choice or Select by marbling and maturity; Australia scores marbling on the AUS-MEAT 0–9 scale and, under MSA, grades each cut for one cooking method, so the same rump can be 4 stars as a steak and 3 as a roast. Most American beef is grain-finished; Australia finishes cattle in quantity on both grass and grain.

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Also known as: Carne australiana vs carne estadounidense · Bò Úc và bò MỹLast reviewed 22 Oct 20269 sources

Is Australian or American beef better?

Neither country’s beef is better as a whole: a USDA Choice grain-finished striploin and an MSA 4-star grass-finished striploin are different products, and the grade, the feeding claim and the cut on the label predict eating quality far better than the flag.

Both countries are among the world’s largest beef exporters, both use mainly British breeds such as Angus and Hereford in their temperate regions, and both ship chilled and frozen beef across Asia. Northern Australia also runs large herds of heat-tolerant tropical breeds, which grading takes into account. The real differences are in the systems built around the meat, set out below.

How does the USDA grade beef?

The USDA sorts carcasses into eight quality grades, of which Prime, Choice and Select are the three seen in shops, using two factors: marbling in the ribeye at the 12th–13th rib, and maturity estimated from bone and cartilage.

Prime needs “slightly abundant” marbling or more, Choice covers “small” to “moderate” and Select is “slight”; all three are reserved for young cattle. Grading is voluntary and paid for by the packer, whereas safety inspection is compulsory and separate, so a carton may carry the inspection mark without any grade. Prime is a small share of graded beef, and ungraded beef is sold under store or packer brands. Private programmes add rules on top of a grade: Certified Angus Beef, for example, requires an Angus-type animal and upper-Choice marbling or better (see Wagyu vs Angus).

How do AUS-MEAT and MSA grade beef?

Australia uses two layers: AUS-MEAT, which describes the carcass with marble scores of 0–9, meat colour, fat colour and age, and Meat Standards Australia (MSA), which predicts eating quality for each cut cooked a particular way and labels it 3, 4 or 5 stars.

AUS-MEAT is a trade language rather than a ranking. Its handbook defines how each cut is prepared, under a numbered product code, and the descriptors a buyer can specify: a marble score (often printed as MB 2, MB 3 and so on), meat colour from 1A to 7, fat colour from 0 to 9, and dentition as a proxy for age. It also sets the conditions for feeding claims such as grain-fed, including a minimum number of days on a grain ration.

MSA, launched in 1998 and run by Meat & Livestock Australia, starts from the eater. Its model was built from large consumer taste tests and combines inputs such as tropical-breed content, ossification, marbling, ultimate pH (which must be below 5.71), rib fat, use of growth promotants, how the carcass was hung and days of ageing. The output is a grade for each cut and cooking method, so the same rump can be 4 stars as a steak and 3 stars as a roast. MSA grades are assigned at licensed Australian processors. More on all national systems is in Grading systems.

How do the two systems compare side by side?

The USDA gives one grade per carcass on a three-step retail scale; MSA gives a separate grade, 3 to 5 stars, for every cut and cooking method, alongside an AUS-MEAT marble score of 0–9. There is no official conversion between them.

Is Australian beef grass-fed and American beef grain-fed?

Only in part: most beef produced in the United States comes from cattle finished on grain in feedlots, while Australia finishes large numbers of cattle both on pasture and on grain, and its labels state which.

In the United States, cattle typically spend their first months on pasture and then several months on a grain ration before slaughter; grass-finished beef is a niche. In Australia, pasture finishing is widespread, especially in the south and in the extensive systems of the north, and feedlots supply much of the grain-fed beef exported to Japan, Korea and China. Australian grain-fed beef is often sold by days on feed (100, 150, 200 or more), and grass-fed claims can be certified under the Pasturefed Cattle Assurance System.

So “Australian” on a label does not mean grass-fed, and “American” does not rule out grass-finished. What the finish does to marbling, fat colour and flavour is covered in Grass-fed vs grain-fed.

Why are the cut names different?

Because each country names cuts by its own tradition: the boneless ribeye is a scotch fillet in Australia, and “sirloin” means the striploin in Australia but the rear part of the loin, next to the rump, in the United States.

The trap runs in both directions. An Australian rump steak corresponds roughly to American top sirloin; an Australian porterhouse is a boneless striploin steak, while an American porterhouse is a bone-in steak with a large piece of tenderloin. The table pairs the common names; the specifications are the AUS-MEAT handbook and the IMPS.

What should you look for on an imported label?

Four things: the country and plant (establishment number), the grade or eating-quality mark, the feeding claim with its days on feed, and the trade name of the cut, translated if necessary with the table above.

An Australian carton usually shows “Product of Australia”, the AUS-MEAT accredited establishment number, the product description or code, the grain-fed or grass-fed claim, often a marble score, the MSA symbol when the beef is MSA-graded, the packing date and whether it is chilled or frozen. An American carton shows the USDA inspection legend with the plant’s establishment number, the grade shield when the beef has been graded (Prime, Choice or Select), any brand programme, the packing date and the storage state.

In Vietnam, imported food must also carry a Vietnamese sub-label with the product name, origin, importer and dates. Part of the beef sold as bò Úc comes not from imported cartons but from Australian cattle exported live and slaughtered in Vietnam; that meat is Australian-raised but carries no AUS-MEAT carton label or MSA grade. Asking whether the beef arrived in cartons, chilled or frozen, and with which grade, separates the two.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

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1. USDA Agricultural Marketing Service. United States Standards for Grades of Carcass Beef. 2017. www.ams.usda.gov/grades-standards/carcass-beef-grades-and-standards
2. Meat & Livestock Australia. Meat Standards Australia: Standards Manual for Beef Grading. Sydney, 2021. www.mla.com.au/marketing-beef-and-lamb/meat-standards-australia
3. AUS-MEAT Limited. Handbook of Australian Meat, 7th ed. (International Red Meat Manual). Brisbane, 2005. www.ausmeat.com.au
4. Polkinghorne, R. J.; Thompson, J. M. "Meat standards and grading: a world view." Meat Science 86, no. 1 (2010): 227–235.
5. USDA Agricultural Marketing Service. Institutional Meat Purchase Specifications: Fresh Beef Series 100. Washington, DC, 2014. www.ams.usda.gov/sites/default/files/media/IMPS_100_Fresh_Beef%5B1%5D.pdf
6. Meat & Livestock Australia. Australian Beef — cuts and cooking methods. www.australianbeef.com.au/know-your-meat/beef-cuts
7. USDA Economic Research Service. Cattle & Beef: Sector at a Glance. Washington, DC.
8. Cattle Council of Australia. Pasturefed Cattle Assurance System (PCAS): Certification Standards. Canberra.
9. Chính phủ Việt Nam. Nghị định 43/2017/NĐ-CP về nhãn hàng hóa (sửa đổi bởi Nghị định 111/2021/NĐ-CP). 2017.

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