Food Quality Magazine
hole can be found, and with USDA
approval, no less. If you’re looking
for actual certification of an actually
grass-fed animal from a free range
pasture, look for the AGA (American
Grass-fed Association) label. This
guarantees the animal had access to
100% forage diet, zero confinement,
zero antibiotics, and zero hormones.
• Free Range: Free range and free
roaming are over-used terms that
have been taken advantage of in the
biggest sense of the word. Yes, free
range is great, but does it mean what
we think it means? Interestingly, the
USDA doesn’t define the conditions for what the free range actually
should be. What that means is that
while one free range chicken is living
on a farm, another is living smashed together with a million other
chickens on a small patch of dirt.
As long as they have access to the
outdoors, they may be considered
free roaming.
• Cage Free: The words “cage free”
also do not necessarily mean that
the animal, usually chickens, was
living and healthy on a farm somewhere; it was more likely in a
warehouse. Again, as long as they
are technically not in a