Australian beef is divided into M1 ~ M9 grades by meat color, fat quality and maturity in accordance with the MSA standards set by the MLA organization, which places considerable emphasis on the distribution ratio of marbled oil flowers, and there are two numerical indexes that can determine the grade of the oil flowers: AUS-MEAT and MSA, with AUS-MEAT ranging from 1 to 9, which corresponds to the MSA of 300 to 1100, but the number is not larger.
But it's not all about the big numbers. Since the introduction of Japanese Wagyu beef, which was bred artificially to become "Australian Wagyu beef," some restaurants have written M9+ on their menus because it tastes so much better than M9, and private manufacturers have added M10 to M12 grades on their own.
Australian Wagyu beef's M12 is the highest grade, probably close to Japan's Wagyu beef's A5 grade, and most of the ones sold by restaurants in the market are M9 and M10 grades (close to Japan's Wagyu beef's A3), which are priced at more than twice as much as the U.S. beef's USDA Prime grade. However, Australia's Wagyu beef is graded slightly differently from Japan's standards, and even though the grades are the same, some gourmets still consider Japanese Wagyu beef to be significantly better than Australian Wagyu beef.
Extended information:
Japanese Wagyu beef is categorized into 15 grades, with grades A3 to A4 being the most common, and A5 being the highest.
Japanese Wagyu grades are indicated by the letters A to C. They are also called yield grades. Also known as the yield grade, a specific formula is used to calculate the percentage of meat that can be taken out of a particular part, taking into account the thickness of the meat, the thickness of the subcutaneous fat, etc. A is good (72% or more), B is the general standard (69-72%), and C is poor (69% or less), with higher grades representing the more complete the development of this piece of meat.
Taking the numbers 1 to 5 as representative, the meat is identified by four items, namely, "oil flower proportion and texture distribution", "meat color", "muscle texture and firmness", and "fat quality and color"; the four items will be divided into scores ranging from 1 to 5, with the higher the number, the better the quality.
The final score is the lowest, for example, if a piece of A-grade meat has a 5 (excellent) in the first three items and a 3 (standard) in the last item, then the piece of meat can only get an A3 grade, which is a very strict standard.
The following Japanese 4 items are divided into standards:
1, the proportion of oil flower and texture distribution: In addition to letters with numbers, you may also see on the menu No.10 grade labeling, which is based on the cattle fat cross-zoning benchmarks (BMS) standard, the distribution of the beef oil flower density is divided into 12 kinds, and corresponding to the 1 ~ 5 level, the highest level of the No. 12 oil flower proportion must reach 56.3% or more in order to get a grade of A3. The highest grade No.12 oil flower percentage must be 56.3% or more to be obtained.
The Japanese use the word "frost" to describe the dense distribution of oil blossoms, and BM grades beef mainly on the basis of the pattern of frost. Therefore, even though all beef is A5 grade, there is a difference between No.8 and No.12 in terms of the oiliness of the meat. But No.12 Wagyu beef is quite rare even in Japan, and the astronomical prices offered can easily run into hundreds of thousands of yen!
2. Meat color: Beef color standards (BCS) are divided into seven spectral levels, with No.3 to No.5 being the best.
3, fat quality and color: according to the Beef Fat Color Standard (BFS) is also divided into 7 levels, No.1 to 4 is better, creamy white fat is the best color, and the more yellowish is worse.
4, muscle firmness: meat from rough to tender rated 1 to 5, but even the most tender 5 meat, but also because of the different parts of the taste differences caused by Oh! If you want to eat the most tender beef, it is recommended that you choose the part of the cow that is less active.