The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) today announced the Remote Butter Grading Program, allowing more butter manufacturers to access to new marketing opportunities providing dairy farmers additional opportunities to market milk for use in a value-added product. This program utilizes robust data management and program oversight to allow a USDA grader to assess butter characteristics and assign the official quality grade from a remote location, reducing costs and location as barriers to participation in voluntary grading services.
Consumers, as well as buyers and sellers of butter, rely on the USDA Grade AA Shield as a clear and standardized indication of quality. Everyone involved in the butter supply chain, from producers to butter consumers, benefit from greater efficiency permitted by the application of official U.S. grade standards.
USDA offers grading services to manufacturers and processors on a user-fee basis. While over 80% of America’s butter supply is officially graded by USDA, most users are large manufacturing operations. USDA’s butter grading services are underutilized by small, independent processors and remotely located manufacturers in large part due to the expense of paying for a highly trained USDA grader to travel to their facility to perform in-person services for a relatively small volume of butter samples. To date, in a pilot program, remote butter grading reduced travel-related expenses by 45 percent, making the service more accessible to smaller manufacturers.
In this program, trained plant employees collect, pack, and ship random samples of butter to a designated USDA office. A grader will organoleptically evaluate the samples and review all accompanying plant records and product data, assign the USDA Quality Grade and communicate the official grade back to the plant. Plants can then use this information in their retail and wholesale marketing.
The Remote Butter Grading Program is limited to domestic butter plants listed on the “Dairy Plants Surveyed and Approved for USDA Grading Services” and producing products meeting the eligibility criteria for the USDA grading program.
For more information about the Remote Butter Grading Program, email dairynfo@usda.gov or amanda.limback@usda.gov.
USDA will publish a webinar on Aug. 2, 2025, to provide additional information about the program.
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