Livestock, Poultry, and Seed Program has published the United States Trade Descriptions for Poultry. The trade descriptions establish voluntary trade standards for ready-to-cook chicken and turkey products produced in the U.S. The descriptions are intended to facilitate wholesale trading of poultry by providing a tool to better communicate product and packaging requirements among buyers and sellers.

You can view the U.S. Trade Descriptions for Poultry Standards by downloading the Chicken [PDF] and Turkey [PDF] files.

Livestock, Poultry, and Seed Program has also developed an interactive web-based application for the trade descriptions that allows a user to define the numerical codes that describe product and packaging requirements. Once the user defines the attributes of the product, they have an option to print a preview or final page that documents the customized code with a description of the value selected for each attribute. A printed copy can be forwarded to trading partners and incorporated into a contract. The site is available for previewing here.

Please return to our site and provide us with your comments on the trade descriptions. Comments may be submitted by telephone, email, or you may send them to the address below.

David.Bowden@ams.usda.gov

USDA-AMS-LPS

Standards and Technology Division

STOP 0259, Room 2633-South

1400 Independence Avenue, SW

Washington, D.C. 20250

Telephone: (202) 690-3148

FAX: (202) 690-0941