Scoring canon
How every score is computed
The complete rules behind every Beef Score and seller score, version 8.2, in force since 2026-10-18. This page is printed from the code that scores, so it can’t drift from it. Every change gets a release note.
Principles
- Every score is a lookup from the evidence on file. No one, including us, sets a score by hand.
- We take sellers at their word: a claim counts whether or not a third party has confirmed it, just under the top of its ladder. An orange “Seller claim” mark means no third party has; a green check means one has.
- A third party’s confirmation adds a small boost that depends on what it confirms, never on who confirmed it: hormones +1, antibiotics +1, grass-fed +0.25, welfare +0.2. We don’t rank certifiers against each other.
- When a seller holds several claims on one attribute, the best one counts. Two certifications on one attribute don’t add up.
- Every welfare certification counts the same, including one new to us. Any other value we haven’t put on a ladder yet is recorded and shown, and scores like no claim until it’s added. Adding it is a release.
- Days of aging count only when the seller states them. We never assume days.
- An organic steak counts as never given antibiotics, no added hormones and pasture-raised where its listing and seller say nothing about them: the USDA Organic standard requires all three. Its organic add-on covers only what’s left: organic feed and the certification.
- A steak that’s been sold out at every price check for more than 6 weeks, seen on at least 3 days, leaves the ranking until a check finds it in stock. It stays on the site, listed under the board.
- A steak whose price no check has confirmed for 8 weeks leaves the ranking until one does: our weekly check reading the seller’s page, or a member’s price check (a link to the page or a screenshot of it) that an admin accepts. It stays on the site, listed under the board.
- Every fact is read from words, not judged: each week we save the steak’s listing and the seller’s own pages, and a fixed phrase dictionary reads them. Each change to the dictionary is a numbered release.
- One rule settles each of a steak’s facts (grade, aging, raising, organic, antibiotics, hormones, welfare): its own listing’s words first; else what the seller says of all its beef; for raising only, else the lowest type the seller lists; else not stated, which scores at the bottom. A claim about one line of beef doesn’t carry to the others.
- When a listing’s words contradict the seller’s statement about all its beef, the listing’s words count. The seller’s statement is shown beside the fact, for information only.
- A steak is one purveyor’s ribeyes in one grade group: Prime (Prime+, including Prime 850 Club, and Prime), Choice (Choice+, Choice and Select), Wagyu (A5, American and crossbred), or ungraded and house grades. Its best-scoring version is ranked; its other bone styles, aging methods and lengths, ways of raising and sizes are options with their own scores and no rank. A seller’s score is the average of its ranked steaks, so at most four.
- Members propose facts with a source, never scores. An admin accepts a fact when its source says it; it then counts as a statement about all the seller’s beef, where the listing and the seller’s own pages say nothing (a welfare certification alongside theirs). An aging fact carries the days its source states, which the admin checks.
- Every change to these rules gets a release note saying what changed, why, and what moved.
The steak score
Each ribeye gets five measures from 0 to 10, weighted into its Beef Score: price 30%, aging 25%, grade 20%, healthy 15%, raising 10%. An organic steak adds 0.2 through raising. The seller’s deductions come off the result. On the board the score shows as three parts that add up to it: Cut (grade and aging), Herd (antibiotics, hormones, raising, organic and ethics) and Price. Members can set their own weights; an organic steak’s bonus then moves with their raising weight.
Price 30%
Value is quality per dollar (v8.0): a steak’s price counts in full only when its cut quality, its grade and aging scores combined in our weights’ proportion, is 7 or more; below that it counts in proportion, so a cut quality of 3.5 counts half. Absolute value per pound across all grades, so a well-priced Choice can beat an over-priced Prime: $13/lb scores 10, $90/lb or more scores 0, in a straight line between. A steak priced under the median of its cut adds up to 3 (v8.1), all 3 at 50% of the median or less, in a straight line from the median; the price score stops at 10. Its cut is every version on the board of the same grade and aging method, each at its cheapest size; with fewer than 4, the same grade; with fewer than 4 again, its grade group. The steak’s page shows that set and its median. No price scores 1.
| Price | Score |
|---|---|
| $13/lb | 10 |
| $20/lb | 9.1 |
| $30/lb | 7.8 |
| $40/lb | 6.5 |
| $50/lb | 5.2 |
| $60/lb | 3.9 |
| $75/lb | 1.9 |
| $90/lb | 0 |
| Price against its cut’s median | Adds |
|---|---|
| At or above the median | 0 |
| 10% under | 0.6 |
| 25% under | 1.5 |
| 50% under or more | 3 |
Aging 25%
The days the seller states set the score, whatever the method. Dry-aging adds 2, and dry-aging on a grade where it’s unusual (anything but Prime, Prime+ or Wagyu) adds 1 more, up to 10. A steak not stated as dry-aged gets no dry premium, including one described only as “aged”. A steak the seller says isn’t aged scores 1. Dry-aged, then wet-aged (dry-aged 7 days, then wet-aged to 28 in all) scores the better of its two readings: all its days as wet-aging, or its dry days alone with the dry-aging premium.
| Days stated | Wet, or method not stated | Dry, Prime or Wagyu | Dry, other grades |
|---|---|---|---|
| Days not stated | 3 | 5 | 6 |
| 14–20 days | 5 | 7 | 8 |
| 21–27 days | 6 | 8 | 9 |
| 28–34 days | 7 | 9 | 10 |
| 35–44 days | 8 | 10 | 10 |
| 45+ days | 9 | 10 | 10 |
Grade 20%
The steak’s grade as its listing states it, else as the seller states it of all its beef (“USDA Choice or higher”: Choice). Marketing grades count. No grade scores 2.
| Grade | Score |
|---|---|
| Japanese A5 Wagyu | 10 |
| American Wagyu | 9 |
| Prime+ | 9 |
| Wagyu, crossbred or not stated as A5 or American | 8.5 |
| USDA Prime | 8 |
| Choice+ | 7 |
| USDA Choice | 6 |
| House grade (seller’s own tier name) | 5 |
| USDA Select | 4 |
| Ungraded | 2 |
Healthy 15%
The steak’s antibiotics score and added-hormones score, averaged: “never given antibiotics” or “no added hormones”, on its listing or said of all the seller’s beef. Added hormones in beef are growth steroids, so they’re one measure, not two. A missing claim scores 1.
| Claim | Seller says | A third party confirms |
|---|---|---|
| Never given antibiotics / raised without antibiotics (any wording, “certified” included) | 9 | 10 |
| Antibiotics only to treat illness | 4 | — |
| Antibiotics used routinely | 2 | — |
| Not disclosed | 1 | — |
| Claim | Seller says | A third party confirms |
|---|---|---|
| No added hormones (any wording, including “certified” and NHTC) | 9 | 10 |
| Hormone implants used | 2 | — |
| Not disclosed | 1 | — |
Raising 10%
How this steak’s cattle were raised, plus 0.8 for any welfare certification on its listing or the seller’s, up to 10. What its listing says counts; a listing that says less than the seller’s statement about all its beef is completed by it (“grass-fed” here, “all our cattle are grass-fed and grass-finished” there: grass-finished); one that contradicts it keeps its own words. A listing that doesn’t say counts as the seller’s statement about all its beef, or else the lowest type the seller lists anywhere on its own site, product pages included. A listing that leaves something out scores as what it says (“grass-fed” alone as grass-fed with the finish not stated). Nothing stated scores 1. A welfare certification the certifier’s own published list confirms adds the welfare boost. An organic steak adds 0.2 to the Beef Score on top (below).
| Claim | Seller says | A third party confirms |
|---|---|---|
| Grass-fed and grass-finished / Organic, grass-finished | 8.75 | 9 |
| Grass-fed, grain-finished | 6.75 | 7 |
| Grass-fed, finish not stated | 6.75 | — |
| Pasture-raised, grain-finished / Organic, grain-finished | 5.75 | 6 |
| Pasture-raised, finish not stated | 5.75 | — |
| Mixed lines (the purveyor’s lines not researched yet) | 5 | — |
| Grain-finished, no pasture or grass claim / Conventional feedlot | 2 | — |
| Claim | Seller says | A third party confirms |
|---|---|---|
| Any welfare certification | 0.8 | 1 |
Organic
A steak whose listing says it’s USDA Organic, or whose seller says all its beef is, adds 0.2 to its Beef Score, counted as part of raising (owner, 2026-10-09: a small add-on, since its no antibiotics, no added hormones and pasture already count in Healthy and Raising). With a member’s own weights it moves with their raising weight. An organic claim about another product or one line of beef doesn’t count for a ribeye.
Deductions
Deduction for limited delivery options: a seller that doesn’t deliver nationwide: −0.25. They apply to every steak the seller sells, so to its average too.
The seller score
A seller’s score is the average of its ranked steaks: one for each grade group it sells a ribeye in (Prime, Choice, Wagyu, ungraded), the best-scoring version of each. Its Cut, Herd and Price parts are the averages of those steaks’ parts, so they add up the same way. A seller’s deduction (local delivery only) comes off once. A seller with no priced steak has no score. Members’ own weights score both boards for them.
Which steaks count
A steak is one purveyor’s ribeyes in one grade group (the rule since v7.3, owner 2026-10-07): Prime (Prime+, Prime), Choice (Choice+, Choice, Select), Wagyu (A5, American, crossbred), or ungraded and house grades. Of its versions (bone styles, aging methods and lengths, ways of raising; sizes of one version share a row), the highest-scoring is ranked; on a tie, boneless, then the cheaper per pound. The others are options under it: they have their own scores and don’t count toward the seller.
The average
The mean of the seller’s ranked steaks’ scores, to one decimal. A seller with one ranked steak is scored on that steak.