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Hello!

Instead of reviving an old post with a #norway tag, I decided to make a new one to share some news.

The grocery store / super market chain Rema 1000 has launched a product line ("Pampas") that includes fresh grass fed beef from Urugay. It's rather affordable at 250NOK/kg for Sirloin and 300NOK/kg for tenderloin.

I bought a 900grames pice and made 5 cuts, 4 of which I froze. The meat looks great! (This was the day before yesterday, I have not tasted it yet)

I believe that beef in Norway is generally of high quality, but because of the long winters here, cows that are grass fed -only- is generally hard to find. Does anybody have thoughts on this? Any preference on brand, like Gilde vs Nordfjord etc?

Either way, I hope this helps somebody!

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I will have to take a look at Rema though.. I am not in there often.. thanks for the tip!

In Stavanger we have a great butcher (Idsøe) who is very open about how the meat he sales lives/d. I know that the meat I am buying from him (specific cuts, not sure on the whole shop) are grass feed, generally pasture raised (unless snow) and grain finished. I am abit sad at the grain finished, but as of now it is the best I have been able to find. He also always wraps my meat in paper, so I have no plastic waste and not plastic chemicals seaping into my meat.

As edle said, mostly the cows are in fact feed corn and soy :( I have just found a source for grass feed beef in Stavanger - there is a farmer toward Randaberg that sells beef by the cow, 1/2 or 1/4 cow. You get filets, ground beef and some other cuts too. I plan to place a order with him soon.

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Thanks for this info. I am Norwegian, but have lived outside Norway for 10 years. I have found it pretty much a nightmare to find high quality foods when on holiday. Norway is miles and miles behind other European countries like France, where pure foods of good quality are easy to come by. But now I will check out the grass fed beef and game meat at Rema 1000.

My experience with Gilde and Nordfjord is that they produce industrial meat of poor quality.

The liver I found at the local butcher was pretty poor too.

Diary is another problem in Norway. Even the "organic" Tine range is pretty poor - the cows are fed soy, grains etc, it is just claimed that the feed is pesticide free (according to an email from Tine in response to my question what organic really means). I have found a farmer in Holmestrand who will sell me some raw milk. He was already fined once, $1500 or so, for selling raw milk, but he seems pretty undeterred.

Norwegian strawberries are the best though.

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Ah, I did not enjoy reading that -- I guess I should be happy that I do not have the same frame of reference as you -- you know, and try to be happy ;) My only observation about the quality of meat here is that it is quite variable - at least in the Nordfjord products, which is the ones I have usually selected. – Gudisk May 28 2012 at 13:03
Yea, sorry for being negative :-) On the positive side, the good hormonal effects of the long summer days probably counteract the possible negative effects of mediocre food quality. And the fresh fish and shellfish is pretty unbeatable. – edle Jun 2 2012 at 1:33
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I dont have any preferences when it comes to brands, because I think in Norway the cows are raised in pretty much the same way all over. Ecological brands may be better though. Im not sure how much the cows are fed grain in Norway in winter time. I think they get a lot of grass also in the wintertime (the farmers store grass to feed the cows during the winter), but maybe this tradition is dying and that they are given more and more grain? Wold be cool to ask a norwegian farmer about this.

I try to eat a lot of lamb, elg, raindeer and moose instead. You can find cheap game meat at Rema 1000 too.

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I have tried to find relevant information online -- I have found the "guidelines" that farmers has to follow, but they are not very specific in relation to what the feed actually contains. At least not in the documents I have found so far.. I guess asking a farmer is a pretty good idea ;) – Gudisk May 28 2012 at 12:59

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