Food - Drink
Why Is Wagyu Beef So Expensive And Is It Worth The Price?
By Kalea Martin
Wagyu beef is known for being the best steak you’ll ever eat but also being incredibly expensive, so expensive that Grade A certified Wagyu can be sold for an upward of $200 a pound. The individual cows that produce them can be sold at prices 40 times higher than that of a typical cow.
The beginning of the process of farm-raising Wagyu cattle begins with screening the DNA of cows to ensure they can even qualify to be raised as Wagyu cattle. After being accepted, the cow undergoes a two-year fattening process that involves using a specific feeding blend.
This feeding blend is a mixture of a fiber and high-energy concentrate and during the two-year process, the cow is monitored closely until its body mass reaches 50% fat. This fat percentage is important as it’s one of the factors that causes Wagyu to have a larger amount of intramuscular fat cells.
Intramuscular fat is vital to Wagyu beef as when the beef is cooked, the fat melts and seeps into the muscle fibers of the steak, retaining much more flavor and moisture. Wagyu also provides as it has more monounsaturated fats than other red meats do, as well as containing a higher amount of a healthy and fatty acid called oleic acid.