Ground Meat VS Minced Meat: What's the Difference? (2024)

The terms “ground meat” and “minced meat” are sometimes used interchangeably. But they indicate two techniques for processing raw meat: ground meat is an emulsion of lean meat and fat, whereas minced meat is finely chopped skeletal-muscle meat.

Ground meat is consistent and smooth; minced meat is choppy and textured. When cooked in chili, gravy, or stew, the former melts into the sauce, and the latter keeps its shape and chewiness.

What’s The Difference?

The main difference between ground and minced meat is its contents. Ground meat is bulked up with additional ingredients. Minced meat is made from 100% meat and doesn’t contain additional ingredients.

This doesn’t mean that ground meat is inferior, only that it has different uses and won’t necessarily function as minced meat would.

Minced Meat

Minced meat is meat that has been very finely chopped. In some countries, it can also be put through a meat grinder, but without any additional ingredients – meat only.

There are also large machines with very sharp blades that repeatedly chop the meat into very small pieces. Consequently, it has a courser texture than ground meat.

Ground Meat

Ground meat is made from meat with additional ingredients that are put through a meat grinder.

Like products such as sausage, ground meat also very often contains other ingredients, so it is not 100% beef, lamb or pork, etc. These ingredients include mostly water, soy, or excessive fat from other animals.

NZ PREMIUM GRASS FED SUPER LEAN BEEF MINCE (~85% VL, 500G)

NZ PREMIUM GRASSFED LAMB MINCE (80% VL, 500G)

UK PREMIUM DUROC PORK MINCE AND HORMONE FREE (300G)

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