How we score

How the Beef Score works

Fully algorithmic — no editor opinion. Every number comes from a fixed ladder applied to what sellers claim, with each claim’s source on file.

This is the overview. Every table and rule is in the scoring canon (v8.2), and every change in the release notes.

The steak board: five factors

Each ribeye gets five scores from 0 to 10, weighted into one Beef Score; an organic steak adds 0.2. It’s a value board: well-priced, dry-aged, clean, pasture-raised Choice can out-rank over-priced Prime, and only the best-value Prime rises to the top. On the board each score shows as three numbers that add up to it: Cut (grade and aging), Herd (antibiotics, hormones, raising, organic and ethics) and Price.

Price 30

Absolute value per pound across all grades: $13/lb scores 10, $90/lb or more scores 0. A steak priced under the median of its cut (steaks of its grade and aging method on our board) adds up to 3 more, all 3 at half the median or less, up to 10. Value is quality per dollar, so a steak’s price counts in full only when it eats well: a cut quality (its grade and aging) of 7 or more, about Choice+ aged three to four weeks. Below that it counts in proportion. A missing price scores at the bottom.

Healthy 15

The steak’s antibiotics and added hormones, averaged, from its listing or the seller’s statement about all its beef. Saying “never given antibiotics” or “no added hormones” scores 9; a third party confirming it adds 1; undisclosed scores at the bottom. Added hormones in beef are growth steroids, so they’re one vector, not two.

Aging 25

The days the seller states set the score, whatever the method (ladder below); dry-aging adds 2, and dry-aging on Choice, Choice+, Select or a house grade adds 1 more, because it’s unusual there. A steak not stated as dry-aged gets no dry premium, and days count only when the seller states them. Dry-aged, then wet-aged scores the better of all its days as wet-aging or its dry days with the dry-aging premium.

Raising 10

How this steak’s cattle were raised: grass-fed and -finished highest, feedlot lowest, read by the rule below — its listing’s words, else what the seller says of all its beef, else the lowest type the seller lists. A welfare certification on the listing or the seller’s adds to it; an organic steak adds 0.2 on top.

Grade 20

USDA grade for taste: A5 Wagyu 10, Prime 8, Choice 6, Select 4, ungraded 2. Self-claimed marketing grades count, and are marked as seller claims.

The aging ladder

Days count only when the seller states them. Sizes of the same steak share one row on the board.

Quarter marks

Beside every Cut, Herd and Price number, four marks show which quarter of the board it falls in: a ribeye for Cut, a steer for Herd, a dollar sign for Price. Cut and Herd light up more marks the better they are. Price counts dollar signs: $ is the cheapest quarter of the board by price per pound, $$$$ the priciest. Sellers are marked against the other sellers. The BeefShopper Score filter on the board uses the same marks.

Sold out for six weeks

A steak that’s been sold out at every price check for more than six weeks, seen on at least three days, leaves the ranking until a check finds it in stock. It’s listed under the board, and its own page says why.

Prices not confirmed for 8 weeks

Every Monday our check reads each steak’s price off the seller’s page. When it can’t (the store blocks our reader, or there’s no price on the page), the steak keeps its last price, and its page and its board row say how old that is. Any member can confirm a price, the same as ours or not, with a link to the seller’s page or a screenshot of it; an admin accepts it, and an admin’s own is recorded at once. A steak whose price nothing has confirmed for 8 weeks leaves the ranking until something does. It’s listed under the board.

Deductions

A seller that doesn’t deliver nationwide (local delivery only) loses 0.25 from the score (shown in red as “Deduction for limited delivery options”), on the steak board and the seller board: most shoppers can’t buy from it.

Seller scores

A seller’s score is the average of its ranked ribeyes: one for each grade group it sells (Prime, Choice, Wagyu, ungraded), the best-scoring version of each. Its Cut, Herd and Price numbers are the averages of those ribeyes’ numbers, so they add up the same way. Aging is 25% of every steak’s score, so a seller whose ribeyes aren’t aged can’t rank high. Members can set their own weights in Settings; both boards then rank by them.

How facts are read

No one reads a page and decides what it means. Every Monday we save a copy of each steak’s listing and of each seller’s own pages (about, FAQ, sourcing), and a fixed phrase dictionary reads the words: “grass-finished”, “never given antibiotics”, “USDA Prime”, “dry-aged 28 days” and a few hundred more. A phrase that’s negated or a comparison (“no grain”, “unlike feedlot beef”, “better than Prime”) doesn’t count. Every change to the dictionary is a numbered release (now 1.12).

1. The listing’s own words come first. If they say less than the seller says of all its beef (“grass-fed” here, “all our cattle are grass-finished” there), the fuller statement completes them.
2. Else what the seller says of all its beef, in those words: “all our cattle”, “our beef is”, “the ranchers we work with”, a FAQ’s “Are your cattle…? Yes.” A claim about one line (“our pork”, “our organic beef”) doesn’t carry to other steaks.
3. For how the cattle were raised only, else the lowest type the seller lists anywhere on its site.
4. Else not stated, which scores at the bottom of its ladder.

When a listing contradicts the seller’s statement about all its beef, the listing’s words count, and the steak page shows the seller’s statement beside it for information. A sentence the dictionary can’t settle goes to an admin, who adds a phrase (a new release) or marks it as not a claim; a fact that changes on a page goes to an admin too. Each steak page lists its facts with the words and the source.

Where the facts come from

Nearly every fact here is the seller’s own claim, read from their site, with a link to where we read it — all of it is in the evidence docket. We take sellers at their word: if they say it, it counts in the score. A claim no third party has confirmed carries an orange Seller claim mark; a certifier’s listing, a lab or another independent source lifts it. When a seller holds several claims on one attribute (two welfare certifications, say), the best one counts.

Facts from members

Members propose facts, never scores: what a source says, with a link and its exact words. An admin accepts a fact when the source says it, and it then counts by the same rules as every other claim; a declined proposal shows the reason, and new evidence reopens it. Anyone signed in can add evidence for or against any claim. A dispute is shown beside the claim but doesn’t stop it counting. Our scales grow as we learn of more certifiers: a certification we haven’t scored yet is recorded and shown, and every scoring change goes in the changelog.

Community votes

Any verified member can vote a company up or down. Net is shown; voter identities are never shown or sold. Sort the sellers by votes for the community ranking.

Independence

Affiliate commissions never affect scores or ranks. Paid links are marked [PAID LINK]. We never sell ads or sponsorships to rated companies. Affiliate disclosure.