Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Mirab USA - Beef Jerky Private Labeler

Mirab USA brandYou may have never heard of "Mirab USA", but if you love beef jerky, you've probably eaten their stuff.

Mirab USA is the largest private label manufacturer of beef jerky, and for the most part, could very well be the largest manufacturer of beef jerky period. They have a location in Taylor, MI, and another in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The Buenos Aires facility is capable of producing 1 million pounds of jerky per month. Their Taylor facility currently produces about 250,000 bags of jerky per day.

The company's beef jerky is private labeled into some highly known brands, mostly retain chains: Walgreens, K-Mart, Kroger, Rite-AId, Super-Valu, Safeway, Winn-Dixie, Food Club, Stop-n-Shop, H-E-B, Ahold, Best Value, Best-Yet, Tops, Giant, Dollar Tree, Federated, Fred Meyer, Golden Flake, Loblaw, Mills Fleet Farm, Nash Finch, Price Chopper, Raley's, Ralphs, Sportsman's Warehouse, Summit Snacks, Shurfine, Lowes, Food Club, Valu Time, Haggen, Western Family, and there are hundreds more.

If you've bought any of these store-brand jerkies, Mirab made it.

Mirab Beef Jerky InspectorsI contacted the folks at Mirab to find out more about their recipes. Specifically, I wanted to know if the jerky they made for K-Mart was any different from the jerky they made for Walgreens. Well, they wouldn't tell me. But they did say that most all of their private label clients choose from one of their house recipes. Only a small number of clients actually provide their own proprietary recipe.

Mirab's house recipes include "Soft! & Tender!", which is a whole muscle style of beef jerky, "Hung Style", another premium product, "Gold Award", which is a hand chunked & formed product, and "Tender Chew", a chunked & formed product at a lower price point. Mirab also has a line of organic beef jerky, as well as beef steak nuggets, beef sticks, kippered beef, and turkey jerky.

Their private label customers choose from one of these products. If Safeway and Rite Aid both happen to choose the "Gold Award" product, then you can assume that both brands are going to be same.

Mirab also has its own brands of beef jerky including, "Pecos Bill's", "Gold Award", "Rancher's Brand", and "Wild River". They offer these brands to those retail outlets that want to sell jerky, but are not yet ready to private label. I'm assuming that these brands use the same jerky lines that they offer to private labelers.

The company's, "Soft! and Tender!" jerky line is their flagship jerky product, designed to broaden its appeal to women, children, and elderly, for being soft and easy to chew.

Mirab USA private label beef jerky brands
Since my goal here at Best Beef Jerky is to gather together a large following of loyal beef jerky eaters, and to educate them about the beef jerky brands and industry, I had hoped that Mirab USA would open up to me and share some more information about their position in the marketplace, and their influence on jerky eating habits. But they were not willing. So, I'm offering only what I can ascertain from their website.

Perhaps as Best Beef Jerky is able to build its influence, the folks at Mirab USA will see things differently. :)

16 comments:

  1. To comment on Mirab USA products. I absolutely love their Teriyaki flavored beef jerky from Pecos Bill. Very delicious thank you.

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  2. i am 7 months pregnant and out of the blue i had a craving for beef jerky @ 10 30 in the AM i have to say that YOU NEED THE FILL THE BAGS DON'T FILL THEM THEM HALF WAYS I LOVE THE BEEF JERKY BUR I WOUD HAVE TO BUT 5 BAGS TO FILL ME UP!!
    PS YOU ARE TOO EXPENSIVE HERE IN CANADA

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  3. My friend worked in their facility once and she said the atmosphere in that place is comparable to Nazis camp. They treat employees like slaves. The beef might be good but the owners have yet much to learn about treating their employees like assets.

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  4. I have worked at Mirab for some time and it is a very good place to work. They treat us well and the work enviornment is nice. Most of us feel lucky to have a job at Mirab.

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  5. Mirab USA was acquired by Marfrig Group of Brazil in January 2008. The plant in Taylor, Michigan has become the headquarters of North American operations. The N. American division was renamed Marfood USA in early 2009. In July of 2008 they purchased the Pemmican Brand and equipment from Conagra Foods and consolidated it into the Michigan plant. Their new website is http://MarfoodUSA.com

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  6. I have bought lots of the Pecos Bills Jerky from WalMart in the past and it was always good. I bought a pack a couple of days ago and it was horrible....so tough I couldn't eat most of the package. I would like to contact the company to tell them but can't find an email address. I would never buy this product again.

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  7. Why would Mirab tell you? Private label means private. A company that private labels jerky wants to sell it in their name, as their product. Mirab might make a lot of jerky under different names. But to each private labeler they did it so it would be there brand. Is it neccesary for you to divlulge this information? I find the information you are giving out, very uneccesary in your reviews

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  8. I'm knew Mirab wouldn't tell me but I had to try. But it's definitely important for my readers to know that when they eat Pemmican brand, it's the exact same jerky as Pecos Bill, or Tony Stewart's, or Rite Aid.

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  9. Why is that? Do you think your readers really care? Are you trying to make sure they don't buy another brand name because you already reviewed it under another name? I think you should review the product and let customers decide. I've been told you are making it very difficult for others that want to private label. Your reviews are not for the jerky industry as it seems all to often where your comments come from.

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  10. One other thing. Keep in mind all manufacturers do not make the same recipe for each private label. You are doing an injustice to the beef jerky business trying to assume they do.

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  11. "I've been told you are making it very difficult for others that want to private label. Your reviews are not for the jerky industry as it seems all to often where your comments come from."

    Huh? Like I'm doing all this for the industry?

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  12. In defence of Steve, from reading all the reviews he could care less about who manufactures the jerky. I am sure he is just trying to let people know whats good and what is not in his opinion.

    Regards,

    Beef Jerky Comber

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  13. Private labels means: the content of the packages are the same as leading brand and the different are the name of the labels. It is similar to genetic drug same sort of it.

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  14. Thanks for a great site, Steve.

    Despite your Dog Treats characterization, I've been enjoying Mirab's jerky as sold by Dollar Tree and Walgreens for about a year. A recent purchase from Dollar Tree both looked and tasted notably different (softer and a bit sour). A second purchase a few weeks later also yielded the apparently revised version.

    Walgreen's jerky is now also softer then previous but, based a single sampling, I wasn't able to decide if it also has the same sour/tangy as Dollar Tree's.

    Buyers should note that, despite these significant--and, to my mind, unpleasant--changes, both Dollar Tree and Walgreen's still market this as their Original jerky.

    Perhaps yours readers can comment on other changes in Mirab-produced jerkys.

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  15. As a everyday jerky eater, I can tell you that while I know different brands are made by a private label company and some are not. The brands from both sources have different characteritics in flavor profiles. While many of them are very close in texture, I put this on they all use pretty close to the same meat and smoking processes.
    Private labels companies make recipe changes for each customer, it is not a business whereas a brand has only 4 choices.

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  16. I love the original Rio Jake's brand jerky, I love that it's tough and the flavor is the best I've eaten in quite a while. Everyone has a different preference in taste and texture. Works great for me on my keto diet

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