Is Trader Joe's Ground Beef Sourced From American Cattle?

With all of the unique sweet snacks and wide range of prepared foods, it's easy to forget Trader Joe's carries ordinary groceries, too. Although there's no butcher counter, the store sells raw meats — including handy 1-pound packages of ground beef. Available in varieties like Trader Joe's Extra Lean Ground Beef and Trader Joe's Organic 85/15 Ground Beef, not much else is described on each label beyond fat composition. Subsequently, inquisitive shoppers may wonder: Is Trader Joe's ground beef sourced from American cattle?

To answer succinctly, only in part. In its description of Trader Joe's 80% lean, 20% fat Ground Beef, the retailer reveals that its ground beef "is sourced from a number of countries renowned for their excellent beef production, including Australia, New Zealand, and the United States." No information regarding the extra-lean product is provided, while the organic beef only bears a "Processed in USA" label. Ground beef sold previously at the store also contained a medley sourced from Uruguay, Australia, and the United States.

For a grocery store known for tailoring products from global origins, such wide-ranging sourcing is hardly surprising. Yet particularly in the world of beef, such a supply chain is fairly common. Plus, these packages still make tasty dishes like a juicy weeknight beef burger or old-school beef cottage pie, making them a worthy shopping cart addition.

While the U.S. is the world's leading beef producer, the domestic market still relies on a substantial quantity of imports. Inspected by the USDA, beef imports arrive constantly from neighboring countries like Canada and Mexico, as well as more far-flung origins like Australia (also a significant beef producer), making Trader Joe's medleys not so unusual.

Rather than going directly into a package, much of the meat flows into huge processing facilities, which makes tracking origins complicated. Although TJ's precise sourcing practices are unknown, it's likely the retailer purchases beef from such facilities. Typically, foreign beef constitutes lean cuts, designated to form the foundation of ground beef blends — precisely the kind of packaged meat Trader Joe's sells.

Intriguingly, until recently, foreign meat could be labeled "Product of USA" simply by being repackaged here. Under new 2026 USDA rules, that loophole has tightened; however, meat can still bear "qualified" labels noting it was processed or packaged in the U.S. even if the beef itself was sourced abroad. So more likely than not, the majority of TJ's ground beef products contain some meat from abroad — although that's an attribute not unique to the retailer.