The fat-ratio ladder: 95/5 to 80/20, and why the EU stops pure beef at 20% fat

Under Regulation (EU) 1169/2011, Annex VI Part B, minced meat is sorted into named categories by maximum fat and connective tissue. Three lines matter for beef:

• Lean minced meat: maximum 7 percent fat, collagen-to-meat-protein ratio max 12 percent.
• Minced pure beef: maximum 20 percent fat, ratio max 15 percent.
• Minced meat containing pigmeat: maximum 30 percent fat.

Read that middle line twice. Minced pure beef caps at 20 percent fat. That is the ceiling for anything sold as rundergehakt in the EU and the UK. A mince at 27 or 30 percent fat is over the line, so it cannot wear the pure-beef name here. The only EU category that allows 30 percent fat is the one that contains pigmeat. So a true 70/30 is a US and Commonwealth idea, not a rundergehakt product. If someone offers you "70/30 beef mince" for the European market, ask what is actually in it.

That is why the practical EU pure-beef ladder runs 5, 10, 15, up to 20 percent fat, and stops there. Not 30.

95/5 (5 percent fat). Sits inside the lean minced meat category. The leanest grade most buyers will stock. Browns dry, holds little juice, lowest fat cook-loss. Good where the fat goes back in another way, or where a lean spec is the selling point.

90/10 (10 percent fat). Comfortably minced pure beef. A clean everyday grade. Sells well where the customer wants beef flavour without a greasy pan.

85/15 (15 percent fat). Still minced pure beef, more moisture, more forgiving in the pan. A middle rung that suits a lot of home and foodservice cooking.

80/20 (20 percent fat). Top edge of pure beef and the most-traded ratio in the trade, sitting right on the legal ceiling. It is the default for burgers, koftas, meatballs, bolognese and most stews, because the fat carries the flavour and stops the meat drying out. When a buyer says "just normal gehakt," this is what they mean nine times out of ten.

73/27 and 70/30 (27 to 30 percent fat). Over the 20 percent ceiling, so in the EU and UK they cannot be labelled minced pure beef. Treat them as outside the rundergehakt range for this market.

Chuck does most of the work here. On its own it carries roughly the natural fat that lands near 80/20, which is one more reason 80/20 became the standard rung. Leaner ratios start from leaner trim. Fattier ratios get fat trim blended back in. So the ratio is not just a label on the box. It tells you which trim went into the batch.

The price logic trips up first-time buyers, so here it is plain. Lean grades like 90/10 and 95/5 carry a premium, and that premium has widened, because lean trim is the scarce part of the animal. There is only so much of it on a carcass. Fattier ratios are cheaper per kilo, but you are paying for more fat and more cook-loss, so the cheaper number on the invoice is not the cheaper number on the plate. Compare quotes on yield after cooking, not on price per kilo.

For most of what our customers sell into West-African, Surinamese, Antillean and Caribbean kitchens, 80/20 is usually the right call. It cooks moist and it carries spice. Stock a leaner grade next to it for the customers who order by spec. Our beef range, mince included across the usable fat ladder, sits on the beef catalogue page, and we deliver DAP from about one pallet across the EU and UK.

In NL, always write rundergehakt, never bare gehakt. Bare gehakt reads as half-om-half, the beef-and-pork blend, and that confuses buyers who avoid pork. Spell out rundergehakt and the doubt is gone before it costs you a sale. Small word, worth getting right on every spec sheet, label and quote.