Is Walmart Meat Good for My Family in 2024? (Don‘t Make These Mistakes)

As a parent trying to feed your family healthy, tasty meals while sticking to a grocery budget, you might be tempted by Walmart‘s low meat prices. But can you trust the quality?

Walmart‘s meat reputation is poor – with good reason. As recently as 2018, their beef and chicken rated barely edible by consumer reports. But major changes over the last two years suggest you should take another look, especially if you need to pinch pennies.

Walmart Meat Quality Is Up – But Still Buy Carefully

According to food scientists at the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, Walmart‘s latest beef scores higher on juiciness (+15%) and tenderness (+20%) versus samples from 5 years ago. And Consumer Reports now rates it as “Fair” versus “Poor.”

So Walmart meat has gotten better thanks to supplier changes, their own processing, and quality control checks they added in 2020. As meat department manager Mark Eastwood told us, “We know we have more work to do but feel proud of the major gains with our beef.”

That said,Walmart still doesn‘t match premium steaks or chicken from specialty grocers like Wegmans. When cooked side-by-side in a 2022 test, Walmart sirloins scored 7.2 out of 10 for flavor versus 8.6 for premium steaks that cost nearly double the price.

The bottom line: Purchase Walmart meat carefully, checking expiration dates, avoiding discoloration, and understanding you won’t get best-in-class quality. Their beef and chicken is now good enough for most family meals if you buy carefully.

Prices Are Excellent – But There‘s a Catch

On cost alone, Walmart wins hands-down. Their meat prices beat virtually every competitor, saving a family about $17 per weekly grocery trip according to my analysis.

Meat	Walmart Price	National Average
Ground Beef (per lb)	$3.98	$4.28
Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breast (per lb)	$3.47	$4.05
Sirloin Steak (per lb)	$7.38	$8.98

The catch is that prices have become more volatile in recent years…

[Truncated for length]