Simplified Names for Beef, Pork Cuts On Way to Meat Depts.

The National Pork Board and Beef Checkoff Program received unanimous approval from the Industry-Wide Cooperative Meat Identification Standards Committee (ICMISC) to introduce updated Uniform Retail Meat Identification Standards (URMIS) nomenclature for fresh beef and pork for retailers to use on pack.

Changes to the beef and pork common names were the result of extensive consumer research which showed an opportunity for retailers to build consumer confidence in how to shop for and prepare beef and pork.

The revised nomenclature was reviewed by the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) and American Marketing Service (AMS), and retailers, packers and scale label companies were engaged in the process. The full list of the revised beef and pork common names are now available online for retailers to integrate into their scale label programs.

Jim Henger, senior executive director of B2B Marketing for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, noted that the simplified names will “help consumers better understand the beef and pork cuts they see every day in the meat case.”

“Now that we have the feedback and approval from the ICMISC,” Henger added, “retailers and packers can begin to implement the new names and labels to give them a competitive advantage and drive meat department sales.”

“This is a really historic event for the meat industry,” said Patrick Fleming, director of retail marketing for the National Pork Board. “This cross-industry effort to develop new common names was completely consumer-driven, and is something that we all recognize as critical to keeping meat on the center of the plate.”

The ICMISC was established in 1973 to guide the management and maintain the integrity of the URMIS system. Membership is made up of retailers, packer/processors, government agencies, academics and allied industry representatives.