KANSAS CITY, MO. — Grass-fed beef was on a huge upswing before the pandemic and many of the supply chain issues related to it.

Now that things are back to closer-to-normal, retailers are looking to stock their cases with more grass-fed options, and suppliers are meeting the demand with new products and ramped-up production.

Seattle-based American Farmers Network (AFN), which specializes in grass-fed organic beef, is raising its public profile with a line of AFN-branded retail products.

For close to 20 years, AFN has mostly worked behind the scenes, providing product for top shippers and retailers that is packed under private-label and other banners.

The move comes at a time when “business is booming” for AFN, and when grass-fed organic continues to enjoy the highest percentage growth rates in the beef category, said Sanin Mirvic, AFN’s founder and chief executive officer.

For the 15 years before COVID, Mirvic said, the grass-fed organic beef category growth averaged 22% to 27% annual growth. And after a pandemic-related lull, it’s picking back up where it left off. And the price of grass-fed, he said, continues to get closer and closer to conventional.

“A lot of growth is driven by consumers continuing to be more educated,” he said. “People are eating better, healthier. The East Coast is still a little behind the West Coast. A little more legwork needs to be done there.”

For years, the grass-fed beef industry was hurt by the perception that grass-fed beef didn’t taste as good and conventionally grown beef, said Kip Gruell, AFN’s vice president of sales.

For suppliers who brought in their grass-fed beef from other countries, the taste was indeed often different. But AFN has also sourced 100% angus beef raised in the United States, Gruell said. And more and more people have learned that over the years.

“We don’t import – it’s another of our differentiators,” Gruell said. “We deliver on all the attributes, and on top of that we deliver on taste, and that’s what puts us over the top.”

“Very prominent” retailers are on board for selling AFN’s new branded line, which will feature seven of the company’s line of about 30 products, Mirvic said.

“We’re taking more control of our own destiny,” Mirvic said of the move into its own branded product. “Since we’re vertically integrated, there’s no reason not to.”

Commitment to flavor

Pete Lewis, chief marketing officer of Gordon, Neb.-based Open Range Beef, calls the modern feed-lot system the “great equalizer” when it comes to flavor.

Grass-fed’s flavor, by contrast, is dependent on a variety of factors: the quality of the pastures the animal was raised on, how well the breed genetics are adapted to perform on grass, and the skill of the rancher raising it.

Because of this, Lewis said, grass-fed’s flavor is inherently more variable compared to conventional commodity beef.

“There is exceptional grass-fed beef and there is also some that is not as enjoyable. Think of commodity beef as Budweiser whereas grass-fed beef is micro-brewed.”

Most grass-fed beef tends to be leaner because grass and forage — things naturally suited for a cow’s digestive system — are lower in calories than corn, soy, and other by-products fed to conventional beef. Not to mention, a lifetime of pasture grazing means a lifetime of healthy muscle movement, unlike confined cattle.

Consumers typically prefer a more marbled product, Lewis said. However, while fat provides much of a steak’s flavor and texture, it’s important to remember that all fat is not created equal, and that fat on grass-fed cattle can create better flavor.

“The marbling created by conventional feed often produces a sweeter, one-dimensional flavor than the fat on grass-fed, which is produced by a variety of grasses and forage reflecting the terroir of the pasture it was grazed on, resulting in a flavor that can be described as meatier and multi-dimensional.”

Open Range’s approach to grass-fed beef production starts with a focus on soil health to maintain and enrich the verdant native pastureland of the Nebraska Sandhills’ more than 700 species of grasses, said Tim Goodnight, the company’s vice president.

That means using regenerative techniques informed by ongoing measurement.

“In the wine industry, refractometers are used to measure grapes’ brix level to gauge the maturation of the grapes towards harvest,” Goodnight said. “Similarly, we use them to assess the development of a pasture in terms of the nutrient availability to cattle and use it – along with many other factors – (to determine) where we will graze the herd.”

By inputting what the company gathers on soil nutrients, plus images of the pasture’s grass species before and after grazing into its AgriWebb platform, Open Range is able to measure the impact to soil quality and plant diversity over time, enabling the company to improve its beef’s quality and flavor. The proof is in the pudding, and grocers including Kowalski’s, Heinen’s, Bristol Farms, and Eataly are all happy with their Open Range Spring Lake Ranch-branded programs, Lewis said.

“What has really given us confidence that Spring Lake Ranch is some of the best tasting beef you’ll ever eat – grass-fed or grain-fed – is that leading premium, high-quality grocers have embraced our program,” he said. “We’re not a ‘We have grass-fed beef too’ product for them: they view it as an important component to their meat department’s signature offerings along with wagyu and/or prime.”

Grass Fed Foods continues to introduce products

This fall, Loveland, Colo.-based Grass Fed Foods is adding a new product to its lineup of blended products for kids.

The new mini corndog joins other blended products, including a hot dog and a meatball, that have been big hits in taste tests and are getting the attention of many of the nation’s top grocers, said Jeff Tripician, Grass Fed Foods’ president and CEO.

The blended products have much less fat and sodium than their conventional counterparts and are chockful of nutrients, Tripician said. And they represent a new direction in the grass-fed space.

“It’s a product that does a little bit more” than the traditional limited grass-fed lineup of steaks, burger patties and other standard meat products,” he said. “It’s something consumers understand but, at the same time, makes them say, ‘Wow, we didn’t expect that.’”

When Grass Fed Foods introduced its blended hot dog product earlier this year, taste-testers said it tasted even better than a conventional hot dog, Tripician said. Now, people within Grass Fed Foods said the new corndog tastes even better than that.

Still a newcomer to the kids’ market, Grass Fed Foods is also making adjustments as it goes, Tripician said. The company found that parents would cut up the blended meatball, for instance, and mix it with other foods. In response, Grass Fed Foods began making a looser version of the product that was easier for kids to eat and for their parents to prepare in kid-friendly ways.

“We’ve talked to everyone from Whole Foods to Sprouts to Kroger, and they’re all saying, ‘This is the right idea,’” he said.

Next on the horizon for Grass Fed Foods is a lineup of blended products aimed at the 50-plus market, Tripician said. The impetus for that, he said, was a recognition that older consumers are on so many medicines, why not make foods that can help meet some of their same nutritional goals?

The product line, Thrive, will focus on lower-fat, lower-sodium foods that can help with inflammation, arthritis, mental acuity, cancer prevention and a host of other health problems.

Even that won’t be the end of Grass Fed Foods’ run of innovation, Tripician said. Next up is a planned line of value products that blend grass-fed meats with lower-cost ingredients, the aim being “a dollar less per unit,” he said.

“Based on the conversations we’ve had, there is across-the-board interest” in blended grass-fed products, he said. “We’re very bullish on it.”

The demand is not just limited to blended products, Tripician said. Grass Fed Foods is seeing double digit growth across the board.

Because of the lower prices, processed is doing better than fresh, but fresh is holding its own, he said.

“Chains are saying they need grass-fed behind the glass, front and center, which is a great sign,” he said.