One of the goals of this initiative and this website is to provide a standard for meat and poultry product descriptions. As a general rule, beef, pork, lamb and veal products follow the Uniform Retail Meat Identity Standards (URMIS) while chicken, turkey and specialty poultry products follow the poultry descriptions that are provided by the National Chicken Council and the National Turkey Federation. The Description Label Application Standard provides a standard for the scale label application of the URMIS and poultry descriptions.

This Description Label Application Standard provides a uniform method for using URMIS and poultry descriptions. Other benefits include:

• Consistency in meat and poultry descriptions
• Improved readability of meat and poultry descriptions
• Reduced time spent on validation of meat and poultry descriptions
• Improved accuracy when and wherever meat and poultry descriptions are used
• Reduced consumer confusion

The Description Label Application Standard is specific to single-ingredient, raw meat and poultry products that have historically followed the URMIS and poultry descriptions. These include both retailer store-produced and supplier-produced products.

The Description Label Application Standard is based on a two-line description that has a 32-character field length in each line. All letters of the words in the descriptions are upper case with no punctuation or marks. Spaces are included as a character field for descriptions containing more than one word. Due to the length of some descriptions some words are abbreviated. This two-line description is commonly used with scale labels, and most scale communication software requires this format.

The Description Label Application Standard was created around description characteristics that meat and poultry products have in common.

The Description Label Application Standard provides for position placement of the characteristics in a hierarchy structure that conforms to the URMIS and poultry description standards.

Description Hierarchy Structure – Poultry

The Description Label Application Standard provides a procedure for the placement of URMIS and Poultry descriptions into a two-line scale label that has a 32-character field length in each line. The following procedure is used to create descriptions for scale labels:

• URMIS descriptions are grouped by Primal and Cut
• Poultry descriptions are grouped by Family and Part
• The group standard for scale label Line 1 and Line 2 description placement is determined by the description that uses the most characteristics and has the longest character length
• The description that uses the most characteristics and longest character length is created by starting with the 1 st characteristic position in Line 1 and utilizing all of Line 1 with as many description characteristics as the 32-character field length allows, then going to Line 2 with the remaining description characteristics
• Abbreviations are made if the description is longer than the 32 character length in each line of the two-line description
• Abbreviations follow the Abbreviations list on this website
• The other descriptions in the group follow the procedure of the first description

This procedure provides uniformity, consistency and fewer abbreviations for the placement of URMIS and Poultry descriptions into a two-line scale label.

Scale Label Description Placement Example – URMIS

Description Assumptions – URMIS

• The URMIS system was created for single-ingredient, fresh, raw products; therefore, fresh and raw product characteristics will not be included in the description. Descriptions for products not fresh and raw should contain the refrigerated state and product state characteristics in the description.
• There are descriptions that do not have a primal listed. The general assumption can be made that these products can be processed from all primals. Example; Beef Cubed Steak, Pork Cubes Small, Beef for Stew and Pork Cutlets.
• A general assumption can be made that a product that is bone-in will not have “bone-in” listed in the description. Boneless products will have “boneless” as a part of the description.
• The Processed state characteristic is assumed to be the “normal” way a product is processed if there are no processed characteristics listed in the description.
• The package size is assumed to be the regular, best selling or smallest package size if there is no package size listed in the description.

Scale Label Description Placement Example – Poultry

Description Assumptions – Poultry

• A general assumption can be made that a product that is bone-in will not have “bone-in” listed in the description. Boneless products will have “boneless” as a part of the description.
• The Processed characteristic is assumed to be skin-on unless “skinless” is listed in the product description.
• The package size is assumed to be the regular, best selling or smallest package size if there is no package size listed in the description.

When applying the URMIS and poultry descriptions to labels, it is important to follow the intent of the description standard. The URMIS and poultry descriptions were intended to provide the consumer with the basic characteristics of the meat cut or the poultry part. The descriptions were never intended to include brand names, grades, claims or retailer specific information. In addition to the two lines of descriptions, scale labeling equipment normally provides additional descriptive fields (commonly known as “grade lines”) where the grade and claim information can be listed. If products are supplier-branded, the package label provided by the supplier will contain the brand name. Adding specific retailer information that has meaning to your company associates about pricing or PLU numbers will only confuse your customers so we recommend against this practice.

The Description Label Application Standard does not change any regulatory description requirements. If this standard is in contradiction to a regulatory description requirement, the regulatory description requirement will always take precedence.