Meat+Poultry - August 2019 - GB - 6

P R O D U CT PROF ILE

the cost of meat ordered online, including the
packaging and shipping. If the ground beef is
purchased in brick-and-mortar retail stores, the
cost is less, between $5 and $10 a pound.
Snake River Farms produces just under 2
million lbs. a year of its premium ground beef
products.

PREMIUM QUALITY
Theiler categorizes it as a restaurant-quality product that's rich in flavor and amazingly juicy. "I'd
describe it as sweet and buttery," he says. It's made
from 100 percent American Wagyu beef, and this
gourmet ground beef is used by top chefs and
restaurants to make signature hamburgers, sliders
and main dishes. The pre-measured, 1-lb. packages, or "bricks," work well for consumers to use
at home to make juicy burgers or can be used in
other recipes. People willing to pay this much for
ground beef have an outlook towards food that
has changed, looking for an exceptional experience when eating.
"By combining these two types of cattle, one
from the East and one from the West, we get
the best of both worlds - a marbled meat with
a beefy flavor," Theiler says. (Marbled red meat
contains various amounts of intramuscular fat,
giving it an appearance like a marble pattern).
The company uses the Japanese marbling scale
to measure the marbling in its beef. Snake River
Farms has adopted many aspects of the heritage-steeped Japanese feeding method, which
takes much longer than the traditional US cattle
production methods.
The bulls go out to Agri Beef's partners,
family ranches in the Western United States. The

2019 GROUND BEEF TRENDS + TECHNOLOGY MEAT+ POULTRY

By combining
these two
types of
cattle, one
from the East
and one from
the West,
we get the
best of both
worlds - a
marbled meat
with a beefy
flavor."
Jay Theiler

calves then come back to the feeding operation,
which is located between Boise and Yellowstone
National Park, near the Snake River. Instead of
being fed for a typical 150 days, these animals
are fed closer to 500 days.
"Then the animals are sent to Washington Beef,
our processing plant in Washington State, USDA
Establishment 235, a 270,000-sq.-ft. structure in
Toppenish, Washington, near Yakima," Theiler
says. "We not only process our cattle there, but
also our value-added products, including what
we call our grind program."
Snake River Farms runs what is called a
"premium meat processing program," he explains.
"Anything that's not commodity program or product could be considered premium. It could be
breed specific, it could be several breeds. It could
be grass-fed. In our case, it's the attributes and
the quality of the animals. We do chubs. We do
seven types of patties. We do 1-lb. bricks, packs
for retail, also two 8-oz. hamburger patties in a
1-pack product. Snake River Farms American
Wagyu beef exceeds what is normally considered
Prime in its marbling," Theiler says. In fact, only
3 percent of American beef is considered Prime
to begin with.
The additional year of cattle feeding, the
management of the livestock and the production system adds cost to the product. Not only is
the meat premium, but so is the packaging. "We
put a lot of effort into the design of our packaging, and what's communicated on the packaging.
For example, our consumer attributes are highlighted," Theiler says.
Then there is Double R Ranch, a second Agri
Beef brand, named after Robert Rebholtz Sr.,

Meat+Poultry - August 2019

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