WAGYU GRADING SYSTEM
When you first encounter the opportunity to taste Japanese Wagyu, you may notice that in most cases there is a ranking score, which refers to a way of classifying the quality of the meat and in most cases it is common to hear the A5 rank.
WHAT DOES THIS CLASSIFICATION TELL US?
In 1961, the Japanese government approved the creation of an association to govern and establish a grading method to define meat prices for distribution, which gave rise to the JMGA (Japan Meat Grading Association). This grading system helped to establish uniform quality, and prices similar to defined quality standards in the Japanese meat market.
HOW DOES THIS CLASSIFICATION WORK?
The first thing to know is that the only people authorised to classify and grade meat are the members of the JMGA.
The grading is combined with a letter of the alphabet and a number such as A5, there are a total of 15 types of combinations ranging from C1 to A5.
The Letter(A,B,C)= Yield Score
The letter, which describes the percentage of edible beef meat, is composed of three levels where A represents the highest range, through B and concluding with C as the lowest possible percentage. This means that a higher percentage of meat in the A range can be used compared to C.
The number(1-5)=Meat Quality
The number represents the quality of the meat as a whole, where 5 is the maximum number of classification and 1 is the lowest possible score.
POINTS TO OBTAIN MEAT QUALITY
(1) B.M.S.(Beef Marbling standard)
Beef Marbling Standard (BMS)
There are 12 grading levels
A BMS between 8 and 12 has a score of 5.
A BMS between 5 and 7 has a score of 4
A BMS between 3 and 4 has a score of 3
A BMS of 2 has a score of 2
A BMS of 1 scores 1
(2)B.C.S.(Beef Colour Standard)
Beef Colour Standard (BCS)Beef Colour Standard
There are 7 types, classified as follows:
(3) B.F.S. (Beef Fat Standard)
Beef Fat Standard (BFS)Beef Fat Standard
There are 7 types, classified as follows:
(4) Firmness + Softness
Firmness + Softness
This scale goes from 1 to 5 where the highest number represents the best quality meat.
The ranking is established by the lowest possible score. If in three of these the maximum value was obtained and in one a lower level, the lowest ranking is given.
As you may have noticed, each grading point is done visually, based on the appearance of the beef, which means that the grading system does not 100% guarantee whether the meat is more or less delicious.
Yes, obviously the A-5 rank represents the maximum degree of marbling at the top of the classification, its flavour will be exquisite, but it depends on the organism of each person, the way it is cooked, as well as the particular tastes of each diner to define that the product satisfies their palate to the maximum.
That's it! We hope you found this information useful or learned something new with us. See you in the next post!