Do you really think the marbled beef you ordered is actually marbled beef?

Japanese beef producers classify marbled beef into grades 1 to 5 based on factors such as the degree of fat distribution, luster, tenderness, and color of the fat; the higher the grade, the better the quality of the meat. Furthermore, beef is classified into three grade categories, A, B, and C, based on indicators such as the weight, proportion, and thickness of muscle and fat, with grade A being the highest and grade C the lowest. The meat quality grade and the yield grade together determine the overall grade of beef. If a piece of beef has a yield grade of A and a meat quality grade of 5, then it is considered to be the highest-grade A5 marbled beef, and its price is very high.

Although there is lower-priced beef that is not of Japanese origin, the pursuit of low-cost alternatives will not stop there. Since the deliciousness of Wagyu beef comes from the fat between its muscle fibers, why not simply inject fat directly into the muscles?

Injecting fat into beef was first developed in the East, and later spread to countries such as China and the United States. It is of course not possible to inject fat into live cows; the processing must take place after slaughter. The beef used for fat injection is generally low-cost beef; in regular beef, the muscle fibers are tightly packed together, making it difficult to inject fat into them. Before injection, softeners such as enzymes are used to loosen these muscle fibers, after which liquid fat is injected using syringes equipped with hundreds of needles. Much of the fat used comes from the fatty parts that are discarded during the production of high-quality beef. To enable fat to form stable patterns in muscles, emulsifiers such as lecithin and binders such as carrageenan and casein must be added; after rapid freezing, artificial snowflake beef is created. Later, various cheaper techniques using artificial fat were also developed.

Raw fatty beef is relatively easy to distinguish from genuine marbled beef. Even after softening treatment, the muscle fibers of beef with injected fat remain coarser compared to those of grass-fed beef, and the pattern of fat appears less natural. However, once it is cooked, these differences become less noticeable; especially for those who have never tasted genuine grass-fed beef, it is difficult to detect the flaws in beef with injected fat.

I like to order this when having hot pot; it seems I won’t be able to eat it anymore.....

With hot pot, it’s hard to tell the difference once it’s hot

It’s so scary,,, I won’t eat meat that’s bought from stores anymore