USDAs New Meat Tenderness Marketing Claim Standards

WASHINGTONUSDAs Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) on Oct. 26 launched new guidelines for meat tenderness marketing claims in response to a Jan. 17 draft standards document for industry review and comment. The new guidelines provide more flexibility to entities interested in having a USDA certified tenderness program.

Under the new guidelines, meat can be certified "USDA Tender" or "USDA Very Tender" and may use the shields denoting those categories if all requirements are met. Meat will be tested using the Warner Brantzler shear force measurement that determines the amount of force required to shear a one-half inch core of a meat sample.

Individuals or companies seeking USDA certification of a tenderness marketing claim will be required to provide documentation that describes how they will meet requirements of an ASTM International tenderness standard; describe the process with a documented quality management system; and demonstrate conformance with "performance elements."