Fresh meat from supermarket vs frozen from farmer

[Kent Wang]

I love the pork from local producer Peach Creek Farms, however all their products are frozen. As far as the chops go, the flavor is noticeably superior to even the fresh, never-been-frozen chops available at Central Market and Whole Foods.

However, for other cuts such as ground pork and other animals such as chicken and beef, is it better to buy frozen from a local producer or fresh from a supermarket?

Cost is not an issue as they are priced similarly.

[jayt90]

For me it's a no-brainer, after I found a local farm source, and learned of others nearby. I can actually discuss the methods of raising and breeding with the farmer, either by visiting or email. From the supermarket I have little knowledge of source or breed, how the animals are raised, whether the ground meat or sausage comes from one animal or many, and little recourse if the pork roast has a factory farm urea scent.

But it took me awhile to develop a local source; lots of local internet searches and watching the local newspapers. In the end it was well worthwhile.

[hummingbirdkiss]

I would always prefer to buy farm raised local meat..but that is not an option sometimes ..

I grind my own meat because I am so suspect of what is ground up in there and have seen first hand that it can be things I do not want to eat...(and pretty much I will eat anything!)

so i buy my pork at a local Southeast Asian market where they do buy whole farm raised pigs..the pork still has plenty of fat on it ..and they do all the cutting on the premises

I buy my beef cuts at the Korean or Mexican Market (same thing they do their own cutting)

Lamb is hard sometimes because for some strange reason people here are not "into" it that I can see ..I will usually order half or whole lamb from a local butcher ..same with goat ..although I have found really nice goat at the Somali or Halal markets here

I find grocery store meat to be tastelss and expensive actually and if you want anything special it is hard to get there because a lot of markets do not even cut their own meat anymore

Chicken is an issue finding nice fresh locally raised healthy chickens is such a treat ..but an expensive chore... almost impossible to find on a regular basis in my area ..

[Torrilin]

Ideal: Locally grown never been frozen

What I get stuck with these days: locally grown, frozen

Last choice: supermarket meat, never been frozen

Of the readily available meats, beef seems to suffer least from freezing, pork suffers some, and chicken suffers most. I'd still rather buy locally grown chickens, but it does mean I'm getting a less than stellar bird. The stewing hens seem to handle it better than roasters, so I may just swap to those.

[saucée]

I buy most of my meat (chicken, pork, beef) from local producers, most of it frozen. I'd say pork handles it best, then beef, then chicken (but maybe that's just because I like the pork more, I don't know). I find its definitely better than what I can get at the supermarket and I'm rather lucky to be able to make some requests (like never been frozen hangar steak which I can get after being on a waiting list for a month, though its worth it).

I've vowed not to eat supermarket meat again (we'll see what happens... ) but only because it's rather easy for me to get locally raised, pastured meat.

I do wonder though whether some supermarket meat hasn't been frozen. Could it have been frozen during shipping and unfrozen before hitting the case?

[jayt90]

 

I've vowed not to eat supermarket meat again (we'll see what happens... ) but only because it's rather easy for me to get locally raised, pastured meat.

I do wonder though whether some supermarket meat hasn't been frozen.  Could it have been frozen during shipping and unfrozen before hitting the case?

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Most supermarkets are upfront about selling fresh or frozen meat/poultry/fish (well fish can be suspect, but easy to examine for freshness). If they have meat cutters (not butchers) on site, they will get large cryovac packages from the packer, and cut and trim for trays. The meat will be wet aged in cryovac, up to two weeks.

Their ground meat will contain some bulk frozen beef veal or pork from the packer, plus

fresh scraps that can be added by the meat cutters. If there are no meat cutters in the store, then the trays will have to be assembled in a central warehouse, but it would be too risky to ship a large quantity of frozen trays, as the appearance would be somewhat degraded.

[Torrilin]

I do wonder though whether some supermarket meat hasn't been frozen.  Could it have been frozen during shipping and unfrozen before hitting the case?

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"fresh" has a specific legal meaning in the US (different for each meat iirc). I don't recall the exact temperature details, but it should be pretty easy to look up the government standards. I seem to recall that for some meats it's legal to store it below the freezing point and provided the proper legal hoops get jumped through, it's still "fresh".

"never been frozen" also has a specific legal meaning, and is mercifully literal.

The rules in other countries will vary of course.

[Anna Friedman Herlihy]

I buy my meat fresh from local farmers (in whole or half animals) and then butcher and vacuum seal myself and freeze. I really have not noticed much of a difference in quality between this meat frozen and fresh (assuming you vacuum seal and freeze properly--this means with lots of air circulation around each package!).

My "freezer meat" from the farmers is certainly tons and tons better than supermarket meat! I will never go back to supermarket meat.

If you did not want to butcher yourself, but rather buy pre-cut and frozen, I would highly recommend repackaging via vacuum sealer.