Colorado-based retail chain Natural Grocers has finished a major revamping of its fresh perimeter meat and seafood departments.

The changes were made in all of the company’s stores in 19 states. The new and improved departments feature high-quality and exotic varieties of grass-fed meat, pork, poultry, fish and seafood. Customers can expect a wide variety of offerings including, bison, beef, yak, wild boar, elk, venison, lamb, pork, chicken, turkey, ostrich, cod, mahi mahi, salmon, scallops, shrimp, tuna, pollock, rockfish and sole.

"Our standards ensure that all of our meat is naturally and humanely raised and our seafood is sustainably sourced, which we believe is the best for our customers, the animals and our environment," says Kemper Isely, Natural Grocers co-president. "We also believe our customers appreciate that we make this incredible quality and variety affordable."

Natural Grocers maintains high meat standards, which at a minimum for all fresh and frozen meat includes humane raising requirements, no hormones, no growth promoting drugs, no use of antibiotics, no land animal by-products and non-GMO feed is always preferred. The retailer's high seafood standards mean it only stocks third party certified sustainable options including wild-caught fish, scallops and organically farmed shrimp.

Natural Grocers has put together a ranking system for their fresh and frozen meat selections that will help customers easily identify and find the quality standards they are looking for. Natural Grocers' new ranking system, which identifies meat and seafood products as bronze, silver and gold, is based on criteria that matter to consumers and improves transparency, which is often lacking in label claims.

Bronze:

  • Sustainably farmed
  • Humanely raised
  • No antibiotics, hormones or growth promotants
  • No animal by-products
  • No cloned or genetically modified animals

Silver (includes all Bronze requirements):  

  • Non-GMO feed
  • Non-GMO alfalfa (ruminants)
  • No synthetic colorants (seafood)
  • Free range (poultry)
  • 100% grass fed and/or certified organic (ruminants, seafood)
  • Sustainably sourced (seafood)

Gold (includes all Bronze and Silver requirements):

  • Certified organic and/or other regenerative farming practices (beef, poultry, pork)
  • 100% U.S. domestic (ruminants, poultry, pork)
  • Wild caught and sustainably certified (seafood, boar)