Is Prime beef from Here better than from There?

Is there a difference between a Prime Ribeye purchased at Costco, Whole Foods, or Paulina Meat Market, corn fed/grass fed diets notwithstanding?

Maybe.

Some Whole Foods locations dry age their prime, some don't. Some don't even offer prime. Some barely even offer choice (tons of WF meat is Select now).
Paulina does not dry age, to the best of my knowledge, but they may be picking their meat more selectively than Costco.
Costco will be straight out of an IBP cryovac bag, sliced, and put on foam trays.

If you're comparing wet aged, corn fed prime from WF, Paulina, and Costco, I doubt you'd notice a difference between them. The WF/Paulina are likely to be better trimmed, that's about it.

FWIW there's basically no grass fed prime beef out there... it's extremely difficult to get the marbling required to even grade choice without putting a lot of corn in the diet, and so most grass-fed beef is inspected but not graded.

Hi,

With a very small percentage of beef being labeled "USDA Prime", there is not a lot of room for differences in quality. This is not the case with other grades or even other branded beef.

The "Certified Angus Beef Brand" beef offered at different stores presents and interesting study. The company illustrates that its beef includes USDA Prime and the top third of USDA Choice grades. (They also sell "USDA Prime Certified Angus Beef".) What they don't say is that their beef is available in different levels of quality.

We have two retail outlets for "Certified Angus Beef Brand" beef, Meijer and Schnucks. There is an obvious quality differential in the marbling of beef with Schnuck's product consistently higher quality. The difference is significant. I conclude that "CABB" offers three levels of quality.

Tim

gleam wrote:Paulina does not dry age, to the best of my knowledge, but they may be picking their meat more selectively than Costco.

I wouldn't bet on that--- I have gotten much more marbled "Prime" at Costco.

gleam wrote:If you're comparing wet aged, corn fed prime from WF, Paulina, and Costco, I doubt you'd notice a difference between them. The WF/Paulina are likely to be better trimmed, that's about it.

The only difference is that you will be paying twice the Costco price at WF/Paulina.

"Certified Angus Beef Brand" is just an attempt to offer and capatalise on an additional branding after the USDA grading is completed. USDA Grading is a Federal Standard and subject to Federal Inspectors. "Certified Angus Beef Brand" can be whatever the association wants and has no control that is verifyable. there are a myriad of 'Angus' beef standards in the marketplace rendering any and all completely useless.
Now there are differences between USDA Prime graded beef sold.
Beef is an agricultural product and all carcasses are not the same, so one carcass graded Prime is not like another carcass graded Prime. Throw in 'dry' versas 'wet' aging and different aging standards and you have a whole other range of quality.
Most important before aging is the person that chooses the Primal cut or carcass. Next is the ability or want to pay more for a selected superior Prime carcass. Then comes the aging if conducted by the purchaser.
My understanding is that a top beef restaurant such as Peter Luger's, inspects each Primal before purchase, only selecting and paying top dollar for the best.
Conclusions, where and from whom you purchase beef is most important and not the Grading. If the beef meets your standards then it's good. Whether it says Prime or Choice is not that important. I have seen Prime sold that is all over the range of standards as well as Choice. Aging is next and that is conducted by the seller.
For aged Prime in the Chicago area, I got to Zier's or lately Joseph's Fine Meats.
For USDA Choice, I purchase from our local Pick 'n Save chain when on sale. The Choice that Pick 'n Save sells is considerably better than most Choice I have sampled and very reasonably priced. I purchase the Primals when on sale and cut myself. Last night we had a 2&1/2" 'Cowboy' Rib eye on the grill as good as just about any Choice out there. The Prime Cowboy that Joseph's cut for me was as good as the 25 day dry aged Rib from Burke's in Chicago.-Dick

Not sure whether it makes any difference in taste or "quality," but the beef from Whole Foods is subject to certain (self-imposed) animal welfare rules/restrictions that beef from the other sources may not be. Also, agree with gleam that you need to be careful with Whole Foods grading and ask the butchers about things that are not clearly labeled. I had long assumed that the non-prime beef from Whole Foods was choice (and I think it predominantly was in years past), but have seen a lot more select grade recently (particularly when things are deeply discounted or on one of those weekend sales).

I would think that whatever rules Whole Foods imposes is more about making you feel better than the animal.
I'm not sure if the beef is grass fed, that you can obtain USDA Choice and so Select it is.
When I had animals raised for me I would make sure to explain to the farmer that i wanted then finished on corn to be as high a grade as possible. I'm pretty sure, the farmer just did what he had done for years and I got what I got, which was usually Select in my opinion. Farmers are usually more about cost then anything else and if its good enough for them, then its good enough for you.-Dick