beef


In German-speaking countries, beef (also beef or beef ) is generally used to describe the meat of various domestic cattle breeds (Bos taurus), which is produced after animals from cattle production have been slaughtered . In product knowledge , the meat of wild cattle is also included, while in food theory this is counted as game meat . Cattle can also refer to the Bovini genus, which includes buffalo and bison in addition to the actual cattle .
Beef varieties

Parts of the beef
1. Beef neck, comb or neck
2. Cross rib
3. Beef brisket
4. Missing rib
5. Prime rib, front rib or high roast beef
6. Roast beef or flat roast beef
5. and 6. make up the roast beef or rib section
7. Fillet
8. Tension rib
9 Thinning
10. Shoulder, bow, false fillet or scoop
11. Upper shell, lower shell and nut
12. Flank
13. Hip with hip steak and tail piece or boiled beef
14. Hesse or calf
The following terms are used:
- Young beef or baby beef
- for the slightly fibrous and tender meat of female and male, not fully grown animals.
- Young bull meat
- for the meat of non-castrated male animals slaughtered between 14 and 22 months of age. The meat of older animals is called bull meat . The animals are also known as bulls, bullocks or marshals, which is then used in the meat designation instead of bull. The meat is relatively low in fat and has a medium to strong fiber structure.
- Ox meat
- for the meat of castrated male cattle. It has little market importance as ox rearing is more time and feed intensive. The meat is fine-grained, juicy and aromatic.
- Heifers
- for the meat of female cattle that have never calved. The meat is fine-grained, tender and juicy. Oxen and heifers are slaughtered after 20 to 30 months of stable fattening or after one or two pasture fattening periods.
- Cow meat
- for the meat of female cattle after calving. Mostly these are dairy cows whose milk yield is too low.
In product knowledge, veal is defined as a separate type of meat alongside beef. When veal is called the meat of calves and veal calves weighing slaughtered kg of about 200 aged 5 and 6 months and. The meat is low in fat and has fine fibers. Compared to the other types of meat, the meat is light pink to light red in color. In the case of food that is very rich in iron, such as fresh green forage, the meat becomes much darker and can be distinguished from the other types primarily by the low proportion of connective tissue.
The terms type of meat and type of meat are also used synonymously for the cuts of beef .
In the guidelines for meat and meat products of the German Food Book , beef is divided into three types according to its properties:
- Low in tendons and adipose tissue beef
- The skeletal muscles of the cattle, which naturally contain very little connective tissue and fatty tissue (e.g. upper shell ) or whose content of these tissues has been reduced accordingly by cutting out ( sinew ) (e.g. stripped bow section ).
- Coarse sinewed beef
- Beef with connective tissue and adipose tissue content, as is to be expected when processing not excessively lean beef halves without fillet, loin and upper shell after removal of the coarse tendons and larger accumulations of adipose tissue. Meat with higher connective tissue and fatty tissue contents is cut out accordingly.
- Tine-rich beef
- Beef with a connective tissue content that is higher than that of coarsely sinewed beef , but lower than when only leg meat is used, meat that has been separated from coarsely detached bones ("boning") and head meat.
Beef at the interface between head and neck is rated as rich in tendons and is only used for scalded and cooked sausages. Meat manually separated from coarsely detached bones is considered to be rich in tendons. Meat adhering to the head, tubular and spinal bones is only removed manually.
Economic importance and consumption
Worldwide production
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization FAO, around 67.4 million t of beef were produced worldwide in 2018 .
The following table gives an overview of the ten largest producers of beef worldwide, who produced 60.3% of the total amount of meat.
rank | country | Production ( tons ) |
---|---|---|
1 |
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12.219.203 |
2 |
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9,900,000 |
3 |
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5,810,609 |
4th |
![]() |
3,066,000 |
5 |
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2.219.103 |
6th |
![]() |
1,980,846 |
7th |
![]() |
1,608,136 |
8th |
![]() |
1,436,358 |
9 |
![]() |
1,231,352 |
10 |
![]() |
1,123,452 |
world | 67.353.900 |
trade
Beef with a total value of around 41.6 billion euros was traded across borders worldwide in 2018. The USA was the most important international export country for this meat, ahead of Australia and Brazil.
# | country | Exports (in billion €) |
---|---|---|
1 |
![]() |
6.1 |
2 |
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5.6 |
3 |
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4.7 |
4th |
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2.8 |
5 |
![]() |
2.4 |
6th |
![]() |
2.0 |
7th |
![]() |
1.8 |
8th |
![]() |
1.6 |
9 |
![]() |
1.6 |
10 |
![]() |
1.4 |
Beef consumption and consumption
The meat “consumption” in Germany in 2017 was 88.2 kilograms per capita, although human consumption there also includes feed, industrial utilization and losses (including bones).
In Germany, the “consumption” of beef and veal was 13.2 kilograms per inhabitant in 2013. In Switzerland 21.26 and in Austria 17.14 kg / person / year were consumed. Consumption in the ten countries with the highest consumption was 34.69 kg / person / year in 2017, while consumption in the ten countries at the end of the table was only 1.16 kg / person / year.
The following table gives an overview of the ten largest beef and veal consumers worldwide (in kg / head / year).
rank | country | Consumption (kg / head / year) |
---|---|---|
1 |
![]() |
55.48 |
2 |
![]() |
39.25 |
3 |
![]() |
36.24 |
4th |
![]() |
33.86 |
5 |
![]() |
33.15 |
6th |
![]() |
30.90 |
7th |
![]() |
30.25 |
8th |
![]() |
29.88 |
9 |
![]() |
29.10 |
10 |
![]() |
28.78 |
World average | 11.20 |
Beef is the type of meat that has the greatest impact on the climate (13.3 kilos of CO 2 equivalents per kilo), as beef has the highest ecological footprint per gram of protein. The average water consumption is over 16,000 liters per kilo of beef.
Religious ban on beef
Hindus see cows as sacred animals and therefore prohibit the slaughter, processing and consumption of these animals to various degrees.
The Abrahamic religions hold the view that the consumption of beef is allowed.
classification
The classification of beef takes into account the fullness of the muscles, the fat percentage and the category ( veal , bull , heifer ), but not the origin or the breed . The Beef Labeling Act stipulates mandatory labeling of beef and beef products. The labels must contain information about the birth, fattening, slaughter and cutting of the animal from which the meat originates.
criticism
Beef is one of the foods that cause high greenhouse gas emissions and considerable water consumption.
literature
- Gerald Rimbach, Jennifer Möhring, Helmut F. Erbersdobler: Food product knowledge for beginners. Gabler Wissenschaftsverlage, 2010, ISBN 9783642044854 , pp. 68–69.
Web links
- Detailed page, especially about the Austrian peculiarities ( Memento from September 18, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- Beef on food lexikon.de
- Beef on was-wir-essen.de
- [1] on http://www.bdm-an.de
Individual evidence
- ^ "Third round - beef / beef" , Atlas on German Everyday Language (AdA), Phil.-Hist. Faculty, University of Augsburg, June 19, 2006
- ↑ David Seitz: The young bull lie: The biggest misunderstanding of meat in Germany on schlaraffenwelt.de from September 11, 2016, accessed on March 4, 2017.
- ↑ German Food Book, Guidelines for Meat and Meat Products , Section I 1.11
- ^ Livestock primary> Meat, cattle. In: Official FAO production statistics for 2018. fao.org, accessed on May 24, 2020 .
- ^ Trade Map - List of exporters for the selected product (Meat and edible meat offal). Retrieved February 9, 2020 .
- ^ Trade Map - List of exporters for the selected product (Meat of bovine animals, fresh or chilled). Retrieved February 9, 2020 .
- ^ Trade Map - List of exporters for the selected product (Meat of bovine animals, frozen). Retrieved February 9, 2020 .
- ↑ In numbers. Meat consumption and consumption per capita of the population. Bundesverband der Deutschen Fleischwarenindustrie eV, accessed on February 23, 2014 (statistics for the years 2009–2012).
- ^ A b Food Supply - Livestock and Fish Primary Equivalent> Bovine Meat. In: Official FAO consumption statistics for 2013 (kg / head / year). fao.org, accessed April 10, 2019 .
- ↑ Beef only in second place: These foods are the worst climate killers - ÖKO-TEST. Retrieved on May 10, 2019 (German).
- ↑ Julia Moskin, Brad Plumer, Rebecca Lieberman and Eden Weingart: Your Questions About Food and Climate Change, Answered. The New York Times, April 30, 2019, accessed May 11, 2019 .
- ↑ Jürgen Rösemeier-Buhmann: These are the 6 biggest climate sinners among food. In: Sustainable Life.ch. Retrieved October 26, 2019 .
- ↑ Food rules in Islam. Retrieved July 28, 2020 .
- ↑ Kashrut - The Jewish dietary rules. November 25, 2017, accessed July 28, 2020 .
- ↑ Food commandments in Christianity and in the Bible. Retrieved July 28, 2020 .
- ↑ Heinrich Böll Foundation (ed.): Meat Atlas 2018 . ( boell.de [PDF]).
- ↑ Heinrich Böll Foundation (ed.): Meat Atlas 2013 . ( boell.de [PDF]).