‘You can’t trust anything these days’: Customer exposes the truth behind ‘grass-fed’ beef label

Photo byRebecca/Adobe Stock Studio Peace/Shutterstock @key4thewin/TikTok Studio Peace/Shutterstock @key4thew

If you thought “grass-fed beef” meant your steak dinner was frolicking in a meadow before it was prepared, you are in for a shock.

Contrary to popular belief, grass-fed is precisely what it indicates, as TikToker Rukiyah (@key4thewin) recently discovered.

Her video, shared on her profile on Sunday, has exploded in popularity, attracting an astonishing 9.9 million views and more.

The truth about grass-fed beef

Rukiyah captioned her revelatory video, “You can’t trust anything these days … I’m not even surprised.”

Here, cows are observed grazing at a trough in a cattle enclosure while a self-service feeding device dumps out huge quantities of grass. The cows consume their food in a manner similar to that in any feedlot, which is quite different from grazing in a pasture.

“I have never felt more bamboozled in my life,” Rukiyah tells her viewers. “You’re telling me this is what grass-fed means?”

It seems she made the common mistake of thinking grass-fed also meant “pasture-raised.”

“I’m thinking they’re free, happy cows living off the land, but no! This is their reality,” she states.

“Literally, everything is a lie,” she concludes.

Grass-fed beef vs. pasture-fed

According to the website of Roanoke, Indiana-based Seven Sons Farm, the minimum standard of categorization by the FDA can result in “a frustrating amount of greenwashing and marketplace deceit.”

Rafter W Ranch states that grass-fed does not automatically mean pasture-raised.

An animal “may be kept indoors for the duration of its life. It could be grass-fed in the form of hay. It could be stationed in a barn.”

However, it also states, “This is rare. Most beef and dairy marked as grass-fed … do spend a great deal of their lives outside at pasture.”

And there’s still another difference. While “grass-fed beef” must be fed on grass, some “pasture-fed” cattle might spend some portion feeding on a managed pasture.

However, “a pasture-fed cow could also be raised, or at least finished on nothing but grain,” per Rafter W Ranch.

To ensure a pasture-fed cow is exclusively grass-fed, food packaging must state “pasture-raised” and “grass-fed.”

Is grass-fed beef better than grain-fed?

It appears that there's a notable contrast between animals raised on grass versus those on pasture, but what advantages does grass have compared to grain feed?

Healthline mentions that the method of feeding cows significantly impacts the nutritional content of their meat.

Grain-based feed rapidly fattens cattle but it also affects the meat’s nutrient value.

“Grass-fed beef usually contains less total fat than grain-fed beef, which means that gram for gram, grass-fed beef contains fewer calories,” Healthline states.

Grass-fed beef also contains more healthy fats, such as Omega 3s and Conjugated linoleic acid.

However, Healthline also states, “Grass-fed beef can be more expensive, and it may not be worth the extra cost for some people.”

It notes that grain-fed beef can still be a nutritious and less expensive source of protein.

Did Rukiyah’s viewers know the difference?

Many viewers appeared to be familiar with the distinctions between meat raised on pastures and meat from animals fed on grass.

JD (@joshdetx) advised, “grass-fed & free range big difference.”

“You want to get grass-fed PASTURE raised,” another person stated.

Texas-based family farm Fairytale Farm commented, “This is why it’s important to support small farmers who actually have grass-fed Pasture raised animals.”

The Daily Dot has reached out to Rukiyah via TikTok comment and direct message for further statement.