ORLANDO, Fla — Would you buy meat from the back of a truck in a parking lot? Every weekend, people line up for it outside auto parts stores and tractor supply stores. Action 9 wanted to know what people are actually getting and if this so-called street meat is worth the hype.
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Kenston Farms pop-up meat sales get rave reviews online. The company has 4.6 stars out of 5 on Google. One customer wrote “high quality meat for cheap” as part of their review.
Action 9 saw some people who claimed they received a discount or special deal to leave a review and there are some consumers who don’t like the meat at all.
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Michael Gandolfo of Orlando said, “the whole piece of meat was grey and was very gross looking” as he described one of the New York strips he bought from Kenston Farms.
Gandolfo said he went to one of the meat sales outside an auto parts store on Lake Underhill Road this past winter after his fiancé saw it advertised on Facebook. The company uses social media to promote the sales with offers like 20 rib eyes for $39.
Michael Gandolfo had just moved to Florida from New York and hadn’t found a good butcher. He hoped the meat truck would have quality meats like he could find in New York. The couple spent more than $400 on a bundle, but they were disappointed after tasting it.
“I felt like I got rooked. The meat was horrible,” he said.
In an online review he wrote, “There’s NO WAY this is real meat.” Another reviewer from Orlando wrote, “I got swindled.”
Kenston Farms is “F” rated by the Better Business Bureau for unanswered complaints.
To check it out, Action 9 photographer Octavio stood in line outside an auto parts store in Haines City, heard the sales pitch and bought a pack of rib eyes. Kenston Farms charged him $39.99 plus an 11% event fee for the pack that was advertised as $39.
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The steaks are labeled “boneless beef rib eye steaks” and “mechanically tenderized.” They contain a number of ingredients: beef, water, rice starch, plum juice concentrate, sodium phosphates, trehalose, garlic powder, rosemary extract and bromelain.
We asked Dr. Kevin Murphy from UCF’s Rosen College of Hospitality Management to take a look.
Upon cutting open one of the rib eye packages, he said, “It has a funny red color to it, which is probably indicative of the plum juice.”
Dr. Murphy is a Certified Executive Chef, he used to own a chop house and worked more than 20 years in the restaurant industry.
“All meat in the U.S. has to be USDA inspected,” said Dr. Murphy.
UDSA Inspected means it’s checked for wholesomeness and that it’s safe to eat. Producers can also pay to have the meat graded for quality. Meat graded Prime is best, followed by Choice and a half dozen other grades all the way down to Canner grade that’s often used in dog food.
The Kenston Farms meat Action 9 bought is ungraded.
Action 9 Consumer Investigator Jeff Deal asked, “What if you’re buying meat that’s ungraded? What does that mean?”
Dr. Murphy replied, “That means it’s… I’ll use the term mystery meat.” He later added, “You have no idea what you’re getting in this situation.”
Dr. Murphy doesn’t mean it’s not beef. He said sometimes ungraded meat could come from an old dairy cow that’s no longer producing milk which is a different quality than meat from an animal that was raised to be sold as meat.
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He showed the Action 9 team the difference between the Kenston Farms rib eyes and a rib eye graded Choice that was bought at an Orange County grocery store.
Murphy pointed out many small holes from tenderizing the thin Kenston Farms steaks increase the risk for bacteria getting inside the meat. He recommends cooking this type of meat medium-well or well.
He grilled up a couple of the Kenston Farms steaks and the grocery store rib eye, then cut into them.
Murphy said the Kenston Farms cuts are definitely lower quality, more like sandwich quality meat. He described the grocery store rib eye as a “beautiful rib eye steak, classic boneless rib eye steak. Just, just a gorgeous steak.”
The Action 9 team decided to give them a try. They first tasted the Kenston Farms cuts.
Jeff Deal said, “I don’t mind the flavor, but it doesn’t really taste that much like meat.” Octavio echoed that and then said, “Might put some guacamole on it.”
Jeff suggested, “Maybe tacos?” Octavio said, “Yeah.”
They then went in to try the grocery store steak.
Jeff said, “Kind of like what you expect a steak to taste like.” Octavio said, “Yeah, this one… this one’s way better.”
Dr. Murphy said it’s a case of you get what you pay for. Unsatisfied customers told us they had a hard time getting a refund from Kenston Farms after the meat truck left town.
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After sending a Facebook message as it suggests on the Kenston Farms website, Action 9’s Jeff Deal didn’t get a response. So, they went to another Kenston Farms meat sale and spoke with the workers.
Jeff Deal asked, “This is the Kenston Farms Mega Meat sale?” The salesman answered, “Yeah.” Jeff said, “We’re with Channel 9 out of Orlando and we received some consumer complaints about the quality of the meat.” He then asked, “What grade of meat is the rib eyes?” The worker answered, “I think the rib eyes are Select. For the 20 for $40?” Jeff answered, “Yeah.” The worker then replied, “I think they’re Select.”
Select is the third highest grade of meat in the United States. Since the box the Action 9 team bought is ungraded, they don’t know if the meat would have been graded Select or another quality which is why Dr. Murphy called it mystery meat.
Jeff also brought up the consumer complaints. He said, “Some of the consumers said that they didn’t like the taste of the meat, and they tried to return it, but they couldn’t get ahold of anybody from the company when they called or when they sent the message through Facebook. Nobody got back to them.” The worker said, “Yeah, I’m not sure. I just sell the meat.”
It’s been a frustrating experience for Michael Gandolfo.
His recommendation is to, “go to a butcher that you know, or supermarket, rather than one of these trucks.”
With the Action 9 team paying $39.99 for 70 ounces of product from Kenston Farms and the 11% event fee, the price paid came out to around $10.15 a pound. The grocery store steak was $13.99 a pound.
Action 9’s Jeff Deal reached out to Kenston Farms, which is based in Alabama, through its Facebook page as the website suggests, through Instagram and by phone but has not received a response.
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