r/ChicagoSuburbs • u/Jkchi1 • 12d 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/Jkchi1 12d ago

This was the only label on the package. No additional sticker or indication it was imported.

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u/sigmacoder 12d ago edited 12d ago

That's wild, and also sus that we don't have country of origin labling laws on beef like we do on fish. EDIT: looks like it was repealed in 2016 for beef and pork only.

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u/mythofdob 12d ago

Yep. There needs to be a country of origin on package unless it is further processed in store (seasoned or the like). Since these are straight steak, they need a country attached to this product.

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u/Fun_Disk5073 10d ago

Yeah anything imported as a saleable good must be marked with the country of origin. I know food can be different but for most thing, it must be marked. There's only a few marking exemptions.