Many consumers, standing in the meat aisle looking for a delicious piece of beef, rely on the guidance of the USDA grade. Prime should be the best, right? But some consumer — and producers — don’t believe that USDA grades do the job, or that fat is really where the flavor is.

In fact, the launch of USDA grading (in 1926) coincides with the decline in beef flavor, according to Mark Schatzker, author of the book Steak: One Man’s Search for the World’s Tastiest Piece of Beef. Graders then, and now, looked for fat, inspiring the industry to pursue fast, efficient weight gain. But instead of making the meat tastier, it’s done the opposite, Schatzker says; his research led him to conclude that highly marbled beef is not necessarily where the best beef taste lies. As Schatzker wrote in a recent Wall Street Journal article, “What we have gained in yield and efficiency, we’ve lost in flavor.”

A cooked steak has 340 known flavor compounds (only 46 fewer than in red wine), but where are they?

Carrie Oliver has wondered the same thing; she’s dedicated to bringing a new level of seriousness and study to beef flavor. Her Web site,www.artisanbeef institute.com, seeks to define and describe “artisan quality beef”; the tagline reads, “Psst! It’s not about the marbling.” (In her first blind taste test, the USDA Prime steak came in last for everyone on the panel.)

On her Web site, she writes, “A core objective is to help meat lovers look beyond overly simple labels such as USDA grade, natural, grass-fed or free-range…We help people discover and celebrate the little known secret that genuine artisan beef is very much like a fine wine, with unique flavors and characteristics that emerge from the influences of the breed, growing region, diet, husbandry and aging techniques, and the relative talents of those who help bring it to our tables.”

 Oliver seeks a new language to talk about meat (not only beef) — one reminiscent of what’s used for wine. She talks about “tasting notes” and rates beef from various ranches on dimensions of texture (very soft, some chew, very chewy), personality (reserved, straightforward/direct, adventurous) and impression (very brief, medium, very long lasting).

Research supports the argument that marbling plays a minimal role in flavor and even tenderness and juiciness. One study from the Journal of Animal Science looking at the connection concluded, “Marbling explained, at most, 5 percent of the variation in palatability traits.” And some producers, such as Niman Ranch, decline to participate in USDA grading, citing the system’s shortcomings. Dakota Farms is another; their Web site reads, “Knowing consumers evaluate their beef eating experience based upon tenderness and taste, the USDA beef grading system does little or nothing to enhance this aspect of an enjoyable eating experience for consumers.”

Of course, flavor is harder to discuss and study than fat, which you can see and measure, but consumers certainly know when it’s there and when it’s not. In fact, Schatzker, in the Wall Street Journal, goes so far as to write that steak “has become like its hated nemesis, boneless chicken breast: bland.” Stinging words, indeed.