Costco steaks blade tenderized?

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BBQscott

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So I usually don't buy individual cut steaks at costco but I have been looking at them to buy now. I did a little research about which cuts are best bang for buck and to my surprise I found out that costco does blade tenderizing to all their cut steaks. The problem with this is they poke it with needles all over thus getting the bacteria from the outside punctured into the center of the meat. Which means you know have to cook the internal temp to 165... or do sues vide for a specific amount of time. Do you guys know if costco is continuing this trend as of today? Or maybe its by individual warehouse... what are your thoughts?
 
I've never bought any, but they look "ok" in the case. Can you tell by looking that they've been tenderized?

You could always just buy the cryovac'd primal and cut them yourself....
 
True, but sometimes I just want a few steaks and not a $120 worth. It seems they do it to all their steaks, prime cuts as well which makes no sense...
 
Been eating them for years with no issue. Their prime are more affordable then a butcher or whole foods type market. I have never noticed any tenderizing marks. Could be just your Costco but I doubt it. I would think they have standardized how they deal with meat across the chain.
 
Pretty sure that is just a standard labeling and they don't blade tenderize most of the steaks. It says it on whole tri tips as well. I am certain they dont tenderize tri tip
 
They blade tenderize all cut steaks. I’ve cooked hundreds of their steaks over the years, and while I’d prefer they didn’t do it, it’s never caused me any problems and I cook most of my steaks medium rare.
 
They blade tenderize at out local Costco as well. I can imagine Costco is committed to keeping things clean and sanitary and I've never had any issue not have I ever heard of anyone having any issue with their blade tenderized beef. I cook to around 135* - 140* - zero problems.
Recently we compared a tri tip from a cryovac of 6 choice tri tips (not blade tenderized) w/ a couple choice tri tips (sold in a pk of 2 & labeled as "blade tenderized) and the family leaned toward the blade tenderized ones as being a bit more, well.... tender. You can see the blade marks in the meat.

We don't have too many choices for beef where I live so Costco has become the only place I buy meat. The quality beats out Albertson's, Smart and Final, and Food4Less any day of the week. Gotta admit though, it ain't always the cheapest and with this virus thing meat prices have jumped. Yesterday it was $13.99/ lb for prime New York loin in the cryovac. Average price for a whole loin was ~$200 each.
 
Of all the things that I have to worry about, getting sick from eating a blade tenderized steak is pretty low on the list.
 
I know it's not the same, but this reminds when I was in Amsterdam, I got hit by a motorscooter and had to have reconstructive knee surgery. Anyway, a lot of the healthcare is DIY, so the nurses were teaching me to give myself shots in the stomach for something. Anyway, they gave me the needle and I asked about an alcohol wipe. Anyway, they both laughed and told me, "Americans always come up with theories about things. They have a theory that when you stick yourself with a needle, that you will push the bacteria into you and cause an infection. The problem is that in America they never test this theory. In the Nederlands, we did, and we find that nobody gets an infection from not disinfecting your skin, so we don't do that. We save a lot of wipes." Anyway, I don't remember how many times I stuck myself in the stomach, but I never used a wipe and never got an infection.
 
I never worry about it at all! Never cook a steak past med rare. And for what it's worth I have never seen a single blade mark in any of the steaks I have purchased at Costco
 
All our steaks come from there. My f-i-l was in the grocery biz and led me to believe most/all steaks are "needled"
 
Smoke on Badger Mountain said:
I never worry about it at all! Never cook a steak past med rare. And for what it's worth I have never seen a single blade mark in any of the steaks I have purchased at Costco
Click to expand...

Agree on both counts. I buy prime Costco steaks regularly and have never noticed any blade marks. But perhaps they seal up?
 
I did not know they were blade tenderized, but I have always found their "Prime" to not quite be on par with other local maybe "higher end" grocery store Prime steaks.
 
I dont see the risk. texas roadhouse has used a jaccard on their sirloin steaks for years with no issue.

the odds of blade tenderizing a steak making you sick is probably less than being mauled by a polar bear amd a regular bear in the same day
 
Wouldn't the risk be about the same as using a knife to cut the roast into steaks?
 
Costco has an excellent track record regarding safety for ground beef. That provides me with plenty of comfort as far as the safety of blade tenderized steaks.
 
Last edited:
BBQscott said:
... The problem with this is they poke it with needles all over thus getting the bacteria from the outside punctured into the center of the meat. ...
Click to expand...
True if there ARE bacteria on the outside. I think that the "outside" to be worried about is the outside of primals and whole pieces coming to the store. If the steaks are cut fresh there should not be much in the way of bacteria on the cut surfaces.

I agree with others, too. Such concerns are in my don't-care box. Humans have survived for a few hundred thousand years dealing with much worse food problems. That's why they invented hot sauce.
 
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