Beef prices take hit from public concernsBeef prices take hit from public concerns

John T.

The U.S. beef industry generates a lot of 50-percent-fat trimmings, or 50s, because we slaughter more steers than cows and because our feedlot finishing process is designed to generate the largest percentage of well-marbled, choice-grade cattle. So there’s been an ongoing question ever since Americans fell in love with the burger: How does a country that predominantly produces fat trimmings make so many burgers that average only about 20 percent fat?


Over the past 20 years, lean finely textured beef, or LFTB, has been one way of balancing the fat content in ground beef. The process involves heating 50s beef trimmings and separating fat from lean meat in a centrifuge. There also is a pathogen-reduction step to reduce any incidence ...