When I first came to Brazil I was very confused buying beef. You see, in the US there are three quality levels of beef mainly available to consumers: Select grade, Choice Grade, and Prime grade beef.
You can see the difference is in how much intramuscular fat there is in the cut of beef. The more of this fat within the muscle that is present, the juicer and more tender the steak is. Therefore, the Prime grade is the highest quality, and highest cost, and Select is the lower quality and cost. As an example, Select grade Rib Eye steak costs $13.51/lb, whereas Prime grade of the same steak is $21.83/lb, a 61% difference!
When I first shopped for a steak at the grocery store in Brazil, there were no such grades. You just buy a cut of meat.
As mentioned in the Hacking Life with Geoarbitrage post, I bought Filet Mignon and was struck by the low price. When cutting steaks from the filet, there was almost no intramuscular fat. I naturally thought “this must be select grade beef“. It would make sense because it lined up with the low pricing. Through later shopping adventures, I continually failed to notice any type of grading of the beef in Brazil.
Over time I’ve researched the topic and as it turns out, Brazilian beef is a totally different category. Its pasture raised, or what we’d call grass fed beef in the US.
As a follow up to Grocery prices in US verses Brazil this means that beef sold in Brazil is an even better deal than you may think just based on the price difference. Why? Well in the US, cattle are raised on feedlots and often fed corn or other grains. Brazilian beef is raised on pasture, and they eat grass. People in the US pay a high premium for grass fed beef, whereas in Brazil, it’s just normal meat.
Grass-fed verses grain-fed beef
Grass-fed beef is generally regarded as having a beefier flavor but is less tender than grain-fed beef. People in the US don’t generally buy it for the flavor profile, but because it’s regarded as much healthier than grain-fed.
It has become more widely available in the US over the past decade as people have caught on to the nutritional benefits. Not only that but there are many people concerned for the welfare of the grain-fed animals (grain-fed cattle live the last 6 months or so in a confinement feeding lot, in very undesirable conditions).
You can read more about nutritional benefits of grass-fed beef all over the internet. Here’s a summary chat I put together from information available at understandingag.com.
| Grass-fed hamburger, 8oz | Grain-fed hamburger, 8oz | Difference | |
| Calories | 432 | 586 | -35.65% |
| Protein (g) | 43 | 38 | 11.63% |
| Total fat (g) | 28 | 44 | -57.14% |
| Saturated fat (g) | 12 | 16 | -33.33% |
| Monounsaturated fat (g) | 10.4 | 20 | -92.31% |
| Omega-3 fat (mg) | 200 | 108 | 46.00% |
| CLA (as % of fat) | 0.72 | 0.33 | 54.17% |
| Polyunsaturated fat (g) | 0.96 | 0.97 | -1.04% |
| Vitamin E (mg) | 0.8 | 0.4 | 50.00% |
| Vitamin K (mcg) | 2.4 | 1 | 58.33% |
| Thiamine (mg) | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.00% |
| Riboflavin (mg) | 0.3 | 0.2 | 33.33% |
| Niacin (mg) | 18 | 9.6 | 46.67% |
| Vitamin B6 (mg) | 0.8 | 0.8 | 0.00% |
| Folate (mcg) | 28 | 16 | 42.86% |
| Vitamin B12 (mcg) | 4.8 | 1.7 | 64.58% |
| Iron (mg) | 4.8 | 4 | 16.67% |
| Magnesium (mg) | 49 | 38 | 22.45% |
| Potasium (mg) | 392 | 700 | -78.57% |
| Zinc (mg) | 10 | 9.6 | 4.00% |
| Selenium (mcg) | 32 | 30 | 6.25% |
| Choline (mg) | 152 | 126 | 17.11% |
| Betaine (mg) | 17.6 | 16 | 9.09% |
As you can see, there are fewer calories, less fat, more Omega-3, more CLA, and generally more vitamins in grass fed beef.
Why is this a big deal?
In the recent post on Grocery prices in US verses Brazil you can see in the chart that the price of beef in Brazil is much lower. Here’s a small portion of the chart, for reference:
| Item | Quantity being compared | US price in USD | Brazil price in BRL | Brazil price USD equivalent | Price difference buying item in Brazil |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Filet Mignon | 1 pound | $20.79 / lb | R$69.99 / kg | $6.29 / lb | -69.76% |
| Frozen Ground Beef | 1 pound | $4.46 / lb | R$19.98 / kg | $1.79 / lb | -59.76% |
That is a comparison of regular beef in Brazil verses regular beef in the US. What if we compare grass-fed beef in the US to beef in Brazil, which is also grass fed?
| Item | Quantity being compared | US price in USD | Brazil price in BRL | Brazil price USD equivalent | Price difference buying item in Brazil |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Top Sirloin/Alcatra | 1 pound | $17.67 / lb | R$46.99 / kg | $4.12 / lb | -76.66% |
| Prepackaged Ground Beef | 1 pound | $7.27 / lb | R$19.98/ kg | $3.33 / lb | -75.88% |
| Brisket/Peito | 1 pound | $5.71 / lb | R$29.39 / kg | $2.58 / lb | -54.83% |
I had to substitute the Filet, since it wasn’t available at the grocer in the US. Regardless, the ground beef is considerably less. Normally I get fresh ground beef locally for R$28.99/kg, so I personally pay -65.01% of the US price for grass-fed ground beef.
How do we know Brazilian Beef is grass fed?
Beef in Brazil is not overtly advertised as grass fed. For whatever reason, I was very interested for some time on the nutritional profile of Brazilian beef, which led to research on the topic. Here’s some of the information I found.
The first piece of info I came across is this 2014 paper Brazilian beef produced on pastures: Sustainable and healthy, which goes on to say:
“Brazil beef cattle production systems can be considered as “grass-fed based”, since all breeding and rearing are made on pastures, and only 7.5% (Brazilian Association of Feedlot Producers), or even less, of the slaughtered cattle are finished on feedlots, and for a short period of time. “
This Reuters article from 2017 is about a scandal but nonetheless references how Brazilian cattle are raised:
“Much of the beef exported from Brazil is grass-fed, putting it in direct competition with New Zealand and Australia.“
I continued searching and found this 2018 article Our responsible livestock farming from BrazilianFarmers.com which is a site by the Brazilian Confederation of Agriculture and Livestock (CNA). It says:
“-Brazilian beef is 88% is grass-fed beef. This makes Brazil a certified producer of green grazing cattle roaming in unconfined spaces.
-Brazilian beef is 100% hormone-free.“
This 2022 article by the same organization says:
“But that efficiency has not been achieved at the cost of implementing intensive indoor farming practices – Brazilian cattle typically pasture outdoors year-round until a few months before slaughter, and almost 90% of all Brazilian beef is grass fed.“
Here’s a company out of the Netherlands which imports meat. They import beef from a variety of countries, and have a page about Brazilian beef specifically, which says:
“Our Brazilian beef is all natural! The cattle graze on vast expanses of grassland and are not fed supplementary feed. The meat is imported directly from Brazil and is available all year round. The cattle eat not only the grass, but also the delicious herbs that grow on the pampas.“
This may be common knowledge in Brazil, but it was very interesting for me. It’s also very encouraging to know the nutrition profile should be of greater quality, following that of advertised grass-fed beef. Please let me know what you think in the comments.
-Sirsandals
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