Livestock and Poultry Carcass Grading Regulations (SOR/92-541)

Full Document:

Regulations are current to 2013-05-20 and last amended on 2007-05-03. Previous Versions

Grade Standards for Canada A, Canada AA, Canada AAA and Canada Prime

31. The standards for a beef carcass of the grade Canada A, Canada AA, Canada AAA or Canada Prime are the following:

(a) the maturity characteristics set out in Schedule I to this Part;
(b) muscling that ranges from good, with some deficiencies, to excellent;
(c) Longissimus muscles that, 10 minutes after being exposed by knife-ribbing, are firm and bright red in colour;
(d) for the grade set out in column I of an item of the table to this section, the marbling level set out in column II of that item; and

(e) a fat covering that is

(ii) not less than 2 mm in thickness at the measurement site.

TABLE

MARBLING LEVELS FOR CANADA A, CANADA AA, CANADA AAA AND CANADA PRIME

	Column I	Column II
Item	Grade	Marbling Level
1.	Canada A	At the least, traces, but less than a slight amount
2.	Canada AA	At the least, a slight amount, but less than a small amount
3.	Canada AAA	At the least, a small amount
4.	Canada Prime	At the least, slightly abundant

32. The standards for a beef carcass of the grade Canada B1 are the following:

(a) the maturity characteristics set out in Schedule I to this Part;
(b) muscling that ranges from good, with some deficiencies, to excellent;
(c) Longissimus muscles that, 10 minutes after being exposed by knife-ribbing, are firm and bright red in colour; and
(d) a fat covering that is firm and white or slightly tinged with a reddish or amber colour.

33. The standards for a beef carcass of the grade Canada B2 are the following:

(a) the maturity characteristics set out in Schedule I to this Part;
(b) muscling that ranges from deficient to excellent;
(c) Longissimus muscles that, 10 minutes after being exposed by knife-ribbing, are bright red in colour; and
(d) a fat covering that is yellow.