Meat Quality & Price Comparison

Take a few minutes to see how our meats stack up compared to 2 of the leading national chain grocery stores. Note that what Georgia's considers the best quality meat is not usually available even at the best "natural" stores.

How Can This Be An Accurate Comparison?

How can we make price comparisons when our standard of meat is so much different than that of the competition? Let us try. Tell us how we rate.

Learn more about what makes our meat a better product with a few facts we've put together. Our commitment to quality is unparalleled.

 

Help us keep track of our competition's options and prices; please email us your thoughts.

Some Helpful Meat Definitions & Facts

Lost on the terminology in the table above? Here is a guide that will help clear up the confusion on popular words used by the FDA and USDA to describe meats.

Free Range Meats

"Free range" as in "allowed access to outside"; the latter having no real bearing on the nutritional value of the poultry meat. In contrast, true free range and pastured chickens feed off of the pasture, and are supplemented with a grain-based feed. Their meat is higher in omega-3, vitamins and anti-oxidants than most store brand "free range."

Organic Meats

"Organic" does not mean raised in pastures, instead it usually means raised in cages or feedlots; although fed a 100% organic corn-based feed, the meat is higher in saturated fats and lower in omega-3, vitamins and anti-oxidants than the "true free-range" and "grassfed."

Grass-Fed Meats

"Grass-fed" technically means fed 100% grass-fed, except for "incidental" or "inadvertent" feeding of grain; therefore, USDA does not allow any beef to be labeled 100% grass-fed. The term is not enforced, since much of what is called "grass-fed" is "mostly grass-fed" or "grass finished"....again not much difference in the nutritional value of the meat from that of any feedlot fed beef, unless it is truly 100% grass-fed.

Not all truly grass-fed beef are the same. Grass vary across the country in their nutritional attributes as does the hay that is available. When a 100% grassfed calf is processed, it may be gaining weight or losing weight and animals losing weight tend to produce a tough meat. So we suggest you be selective, buy from a known source. And when you buy, buy local sources of meat from someone you can come to know and trust. (It is not very sustainable to be importing grass-fed beef from Montana or lamb from across the ocean, is it?)

Natural Meats

"Natural" does not mean GMO-free; rather it means no synthetic chemicals in the feed. "Natural" does not mean "pastured"; most natural meats are caged or raised in feedlots but fed a natural feed that is free of hormones or antibiotics, but not necessarily free of animal protein.

Pastured

"Pastured" does not mean "grassfed"; instead it means raised in pastures. Large scale commercial "pastured" cattle commonly live in small pasture lots and feed from feeders, getting often most of their nutrition from grain and hay or mixtures of molasses and synthetic urea, not from grazing off a pasture. And they may be fed grain with hormones and antibiotics or wear antibiotic ear tags. It is not unusual even for local sources of "pastured" animals to be fed grain mostly or mostly commercial hay.

Natural Sausage

"Natural sausage" does not mean sausage derived from a single animal. Nearly all the local sausage makers buy trimmings in 10,000 pound quantities from national companies and make their sausage from mixed trimmings that may come from multiple process facilities.

Interesting Fact on Ground Beef

Hamburger is usually from mixed trimmings shipped to a hamburger plant that produces a million pounds of hamburger literally from 1000's of animals. And many of the local beef come from pasture operations with less and less winter feeding of grain due to high costs. Georgia's provides lean grass-fed ground beef from a single animal.

More Facts About Our Meats Buy Our Meats Online