Learned that 30% of beef yield gets thrown out before it hits the counter

I was reading through some USDA waste data last night from a 2023 report. It said almost a third of each carcass never makes it past the trim table because of fat, bone, and silver skin. That shocked me because I always thought we were pretty efficient. But then I added up what I trim off a typical 800 pound steer and it matches pretty close. Has anyone else looked at their own trim waste numbers and tried to cut it down?

3 comments

3 Comments

ericj4512d ago

Right so basically we're paying for a full steer just to throw a third of it in the trash before anyone even gets a steak.

jake98612d ago

Read a study that said the average american household throws away like $1,500 worth of food every year. That's a lot of cows and chickens just sitting in landfills rotting. The worst part is all the water and grain that went into raising that steer is wasted too, not just the meat itself.

jamie77012d agoProlific Poster

I mean, yeah, that $1,500 number hits hard. The thing about the water and grain waste really gets me too, because that's the part most people don't see. Maybe it's just me, but I've gotten way better at this by doing one simple thing: meal planning around what's already in my fridge before I buy anything new. I keep a whiteboard on my fridge and write down stuff that's about to go bad, then I purposely find recipes to use it up. Also, I freeze leftovers in single portions so they don't get lost in the back and forgotten. It's not perfect and I still toss stuff sometimes, but it's cut my food waste down a ton over the last year.