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Quality Grades for Lamb

• In lamb, factors evaluated include:

  • physiological age of the carcass

  • flank fat streaking

  • lean and external fat color and firmness

  • Conformation

• 90% of lambs slaughtered in the US grade USDA Choice or higher

Quality Grades

• For beef includes:

  • Prime

  • Choice

  • Select

  • Standard

  • Commercial

  • Utility

  • Cutter

  • Canner

• For lamb includes:

  • Prime

  • Choice

  • Good

- Most of the beef in grocery stores is select with some USDA Choice, Prime, and branded programs.