The highest yield grade and meat quality grade for Wagyu beef is A5, where A represents the yield grade, and 5 represents the meat quality grade. A5 Wagyu beef denotes meat with ideal firmness and texture, coloring, yield, and beef marbling score.
Wagyu beef gets graded from 1 to 5, with 1 being the poorest quality and 5 being the highest. The number depends on how well the beef meets coloring, texture, and fat standard criteria. The letter grade represents the Wagyu yield, or the amount of the cattle’s meat that can be cut into quality portions of beef.
A5 Wagyu is regarded as the best grade, so A5 is better than A1 Wagyu in terms of overall quality. Therefore, A5 Wagyu usually costs more per pound than A1 Wagyu beef.