Where’s My Beef? Specific Risk Material: How It Affects Cuts and Boxed Yield
No, the butcher did not have it for his dinner. By federal law, any beef that is older than 30 months is subject to the Specific Risk Material regulation. All custom, state, and federally inspected processing plants must remove the brains, eyes, spinal cord and a large portion of the vertebral column from the final cuts of beef. This results in the absence of some traditional cuts and 10-15 percent less pounds back in your box. In this podcast, NCAT livestock specialist Dave Scott and Justin Fisher of Ranchland Packing Company in Butte, Montana, discuss the law and its affects.
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