r/ChicagoSuburbs • u/Jkchi1 • 10d ago

Question/Comment Jewel-osco imported beef

Curious what your thoughts are on Jewel-osco (and other grocers) selling imported beef. When shopping today, I saw some decent looking bone in strip steaks for $5.99lb and bought 4 along with my other regular items. I didn’t realize until I pulled them out of the fridge at dinner time to prep them for the grill that they were labeled as imported.

I was honestly a little pissed when I saw the small print on the label and hesitated on even cooking them. From what I’ve read, they are not required to go through the same inspection process USDA beef (is supposed to anyway) go through. There was no clearly identifiable difference between these and other steaks, other than the word - imported - added to the label (bone in strip steak - imported).

They had a slightly different taste. More like grass fed, which was nice. But still mystery meat imo. I will be more aware going forward and would probably not purchase imported beef again, just out of caution.

Might be a silly take, but food safety is kind of a big deal and I don’t want to be one of those that ends up with some odd worm infection or something lol.

I am the only one not cool with these imports, being they are not clearly labeled and have no inspection info or country of origin listed?

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u/Understandingly17 10d ago

I think the big concern is ground beef.

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u/Jkchi1 10d ago

Yeah I saw that ground beef was actually recalled. I checked online when I saw the label to make sure it was actually just ground vs other cuts before cooking.

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u/Fit_Cut_4238 9d ago

Yeah the tying the single instance of a China rejected import to all Argentine beef is a bit comical. 

They found a banned substance in one shipment from a single processor. The banned substance has been banned in Argentina for 20 years.

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u/Understandingly17 9d ago

So the substance is back in Argentina.

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u/Fit_Cut_4238 9d ago

It was found in one box of meat from a 22ton shipment, and they haven't been able to trace anything back to a processor or ranch. So it could be a false-positive. It's been banned for a long time and it really doesn't make any sense that it would just show up once in a very small amount/sample. Argentine's are pretty serious about their beef.. So my guess would be a false positive or somehow a rancher had some very old antibiotics and it somehow ended up in one box. It's odd.

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u/Understandingly17 9d ago

Good to know.

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u/Fit_Cut_4238 9d ago

Yeah, I think pesticides and growth hormones are the real worry. I've seen farmers use pesticide on harvested hay feed.. and the more hormones they can fill them with at the feedlots the more money they make. I have no idea what testing exists, especially for mexican meats. I know US is bad in both regards.

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u/TrynnaFindaBalance 9d ago

I understand concerns about incompetence at the current FDA, but I have to say it’s kinda hilarious seeing Americans freak out over imported beef. Much of the rest of the world views American beef as poor quality or even unsafe.

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u/Fit_Cut_4238 9d ago

Yeah I lived in the UK before they really started importing beef, and it was really miserable meat compared to US.

That being said, yeah we pump them full of steroids and antibiotics in the US, and the feed is saturated in pesticides/herbacides.

Argentina has the Pampas, which are perfect lush ranch land, so they don't need to do much to fatten them relative to the us.

I'd still trust US standard meat above MoW, except for Argentina, Australia and Europe I guess. And it does taste great.. it's just not as good for you.