Your Guide to Buying Meat: What You Need to Know

Your Guide to Buying Meat: What You Need to Know

In a recent article, Plant-Based Meats: What You Need to Know, I wrote about the differences between the new plant-based meats that have taken to the market with much fanfare. In this week’s edition, I take you through all the different varieties of animal-based meats in the markets around Alexandria, Virginia, and the surrounding areas, as your guide to buying meat.

From grass-fed beef to free-range bison and hormone-free chicken to antibiotic-free, low-fat turkey, there are endless options and complexity to buying animal meats today. To get the best meat for you and your family, let’s tackle the differences, the standards for meat, and where you can find them locally.

Differences Between All the Meats!

Dating back to the earliest humans, animal meat is a source of nutrition; hunting in groups to take down large prey. Then, as early as 10,000 BCE, humans begin to domesticate animals, including poultry, sheep, cattle, pigs, horses and others, for harvesting and to do work.

In general, meat constitutes the fleshy muscle, fat and associated tissue that we eat. When discussing most adult mammal meat, such as cattle, goats, horses, pigs, sheep and others, they are categorized as red meat, while chicken, turkey and other fowl are considered white meat. 

Also, for purposes of this discussion, fish and seafood are types of meat (except by some religious definitions). Meat is a protein source in nutrition science (and by government regulation), and fish and seafood are just that. Technically, amphibians, birds, fish, mammals, and reptiles all contain edible meat for humans, but I’m only focusing on birds, fish and mammals here.

Regarding most of the meat we eat in the modern world, notwithstanding the Paleo diet popularity, here are the animals and their meat (each linked to their USDA Nutritional Facts database search/listing):

These are not all the meat options in the world, but they are the most common ones that you will see on grocery store shelves and from boutique butchers and markets today. With a knowledge of the types of meat and their nutritional facts, we are armed to find out how they are differently raised and harvested.

Standards in the Meat Industry

There are any number of standards in the meat industry, that can make selecting the right combination of qualities a bit daunting. I want to set the record straight for you so that you can make more informed decisions about the meat you buy and eat, so let’s look at all the buzzwords you see at the market.

Organic Versus Processed Meat

What does it mean when you see that you’re buying organic meat? In our article, Organic Fruits and Vegetables: What You Need to Know, we discussed that,

The important thing that organic foods do is substantially benefit public health by not using irradiation to kill contaminants (which breeds more antibiotic resistant bacteria in the long-term) while using fewer chemical additives and synthetic pesticides. None of this is zero, but organic means hopefully less-detrimental impact on your health over conventional food crops.

Standards aside, organic produce provides the most compelling reason in that organic farms already and continually work to lessen their environmental impact. With worsening climate impacts on the planet, there’s a risk to the entire food production process. By supporting organic produce, it creates an across-the-board improvement to organic food production through market forces.

Swap out foods, food crops and produce for meat and the same mostly applies. Organic meat implies that the animals are raised and harvested without, or with limited, use of synthetic pesticides, herbicides, growth hormones or the use of antibiotics.

While it’s widely marketed as more healthful, organic meat has limited (perhaps a bit more healthy Omega-3 fatty acids) to no added nutritional value that makes up for the higher cost at the grocer. If you want to buy organic meat, the reasons would be for the environmental and social benefits.

On the other hand, processed meats can be equally expensive today. There are many artisanal varieties that can be four, five and nine times the price of conventional and organic meat. Processed meats apply flavoring or preserving methods such as curing, fermenting, salting and smoking to the meat. These processed meats include, generally, bacon, canned meat, corned beef, ham, jerky, meat sauces, packaged “deli” meat, salami and sausages. 

Beware that if you want sliced deli meat and it’s packaged, it’s likely been processed in some way to preserve it. So, get your fresh meats sliced at the deli counter to ensure it is less processed.

Hormone-Free

One area that gets quite a lot of attention on meat packaging is that they are hormone-free. Namely, the hormones estrogen, progesterone and testosterone, that promote growth of the animal while it’s developing. The difference in hormones given from those produced naturally by the animal are small in scale, but used as a marketing slogan by meat manufacturers. If you eat one egg you get just about the same amount of the hormone estrogen…if you ate nearly 170 pounds of hormone-fed beef. As you can see, the difference is widely exaggerated. Plenty of hormone-free meats exist on the shelves of your grocer, if for medical reasons it’s been prescribed by your doctor.

Grass-Fed (Grain-Free)

Mostly for cattle, you may see that your beef is grass-fed (grain-free). This simply means that they were allowed to forage for their own food (grass), instead of being fed a consistent store of grains. There are some studies that show, similar to organic meat, that there is a slightly elevated level of Omega-3 fatty acids in grass-fed beef, and that grain-fed beef has more total fat content. Some foodies say grass-fed beef is tastier than grain-fed. The downside is similar to all of these standards; you’re going to pay more at the market for them.

Free Range, and Eating Wild

When you hear about free range, it’s usually in the context of poultry, and more specifically, chicken. In the United States, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) defines “free range” as the poultry having had “access to the outside.” That doesn’t inspire a great deal of confidence among environmental and animal activists about how much time poultry get a chance to see nature. So, don’t buy too much into the hype of free range.

Additionally, there is an interesting movement around eating wild. That is, eating animal meats that are raised outside of factory farms in the case of cattle, bison, sheep, poultry, and even fish. This helps to support more local farms and buying more locally, which has a positive environmental impact. That’s worth checking out!

You will see “Wild Caught” on the packaging or signage for fish, such as salmon, indicating that they are not from a fish farm. (Think of a fish farm as a giant aquarium where fish are raised in captivity until harvested for sale.)

For added fun, you can find more wild meat in game meats, such as wild poultry, venison, bison, wild rabbit and more. There’s no standard there, except that you can’t buy these in the grocery store because it’s prohibited. For the meat you can buy at the store, let’s see where you can find quality meat in and around Alexandria, Virginia.

Where to Buy Quality Meat Around Alexandria, Virginia

Grocers

If you’re looking for a quick shopping experience there is plenty of meat at your local major grocers, including Giant Food, Harris Teeter, Wegmans, Whole Foods Market and Trader Joe’s. We are blessed with an abundance of options right in the city.

Butchers

For the hometown champion, look no further than Let’s Meat on the Avenue! They’re your neighborhood butcher shop with all the perks, including a list of where they source all of their meat right on the home page of their website. They have weekly sausages (see the list on their website) and you can call them during business hours to see what’s in stock or to make special orders.

Fresh Fish

Fish is a bit more difficult to get fresh in the Alexandria city limits, but there are a few options. For starters, check out the Del Ray Farmers Market and Old Town Farmers Market, among the other farmers markets. You can find select vendors selling fresh fish there.

If you want a better selection, venture into the District’s Southwest Waterfront to Captain White’s Seafood City, where you can buy fresh and cooked seafood.

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What’s your favorite meat? Where do you buy meat in and around Alexandria, Virginia and the Washington, DC, area? Let me know in the comments!