British cuts · MeatGrader Quality

British and European beef cuts

35 cuts across 12 primals, in their native british naming.

Anatomy and naming

The british carcass

British and continental European beef butchery uses traditional English-language names that mostly differ from US conventions. Topside (US: top round), silverside (US: bottom round), rump (US: top sirloin), fore rib (US: ribeye section), fillet (US: tenderloin), and entrecôte (US: strip steak) are the canonical UK/EU trade names. French butchery overlays additional cut-specific names like côte de boeuf for a single-rib steak.

The UK does not have a unified national beef-grading equivalent to USDA at retail. EUROP carcass classification rates conformation and fat cover for the wholesale trade, but retail beef labels rely on breed claims (Aberdeen Angus, Hereford), aging notation (28-day dry-aged), and feeding (grass-fed). MeatGrader Quality (MGQ) is the best fit at retail for system-agnostic grading.

Read the MeatGrader Quality grading guide

Hover a primal below to highlight it on the chart

Grading · MeatGrader

MeatGrader Quality

MeatGrader Quality is a four-tier marbling-based beef quality grading system applied by MeatGrader to regions whose official systems do not assess marbling. Several major beef-producing regions classify carcasses by conformation, maturity, or fat cover instead of intramuscular fat: the EU uses the EUROP grid (carcass conformation), Brazil uses MAPA classification (maturity and fat cover), Argentina uses Tipificacion (conformation and fat cover). MeatGrader Quality fills the marbling-based assessment gap in those regions with four named tiers: Supreme, Superior, Select, and Standard.

Supreme

Outstanding quality with dense, well-distributed marbling. Comparable to USDA Prime in marbling level. The top tier.

Superior

Above-average quality with visible, even marbling. Comparable to USDA Choice. The most common premium-retail tier.

Select

Acceptable quality with moderate marbling. Comparable to USDA Select. Standard supermarket retail.

Standard

Basic quality with minimal marbling. Comparable to USDA Standard. Typically suited to slow cooking, ground beef, or stew applications. Flagged as not passing in MeatGrader's quality-control workflow.

Visual factors

What graders evaluate

Marbling, distribution and density of intramuscular fat, judged against reference imagery aligned with USDA marbling scoring

Lean color, bright cherry-red preferred for fresh beef; very dark or pale colors flagged with context

Texture, fine-grained preferred; coarse or watery texture downgraded

Fat quality, white firm external fat preferred; yellow or oily fat downgraded

Region-native cut naming, the cut is identified in its local terminology (picanha, vacio, entrecote, etc.), but the quality tier is determined by the four visual factors above

From a photo

How MeatGrader applies MeatGrader Quality

MeatGrader Quality is the default grading system MeatGrader applies when you select an origin whose official system does not assess marbling: Europe (EUROP), Brazil (MAPA), Argentina (Tipificacion), or Other. The model returns one of four named tiers (Supreme, Superior, Select, Standard) plus a per-factor breakdown of marbling, color, texture, and fat quality. Standard is flagged as not passing in MeatGrader's quality-control workflow, useful for butchers and restaurants verifying inbound shipments.

Read the universal four-factor framework

Cuts by primal