Grading Beef -- is it uniquely a United States system?

[ipsedixit]

The grades used to differentiate beef used by the USDA -- Prime, Choice, Select, etc. -- is it a purely U.S. thing?

Do other countries grade their beef on a (similar?) sliding scale based on intramuscular fat and age of the cattle?

If they don't, then are there no systems in place to differentiate one cut of beef from another -- other than perhaps by sight?

[FEF]

I think most developed countries have some sort of system. Canada does:

http://www.canadianbeef.info/OrderCen...

And Japan does. In fact, on the Japanese grading scale, Certified Angus Beef is about like Select here in the States.

[Harters]

"I think most developed countries have some sort of system."

I sort of realised that we're in the Third World here in Europe

[ipsedixit]

RFLMAO.

[hannaone]

http://www.australian-meat.com/chiller-assessment-beef

http://www.foodassurance.teagasc.ie/F...

[Harters]

We certainly don't grade meat like that in the UK and I don't recall seeing anything similar in the other European countries I visit regularly.

[pikawicca]

The Japanese take grading beef to an insane level. Not speaking as an expert, but IME, Europeans don't do this. Each region traditionally raises a certain breed of cattle (on grass). They are not finished on grain, so the marbling is low. Which is not to say that the beef is bad -- I love it. I suspect that all of this is changing, as the American model of factory farming spreads its nasty tentacles.