New Meat Buyers Guide offers resources for North American meat trade

The new edition of The Meat Buyer’s Guide, launched by the North American Meat Association (NAMA), represents a breakthrough achievement for the North American meat trade, and the U.S. and Canadian governments.

Newly revised, this 8^th edition of The Guide is the first universal meat-cut reference for the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Pre-order it now at http://shop.meatbuyersguide.com, +1 800.932.0617, or help@urnerbarry.com.

Features of the new North America Edition
The Meat Buyer’s Guidehas been the premier resource for the people who buy, sell, cut, cook, eat and enjoy meat for more than 50 years. It’s a high-quality publication that covers beef, pork, lamb, veal and poultry; includes vivid color photography; and sets the standard for guidance on meat nomenclature.

The new edition features:

40 new cuts
84 major specification revisions
New item names and descriptions to reflect current industry practices
Processing options that reflect industry innovations
Updated nutritional information
A compact layout that makes the book 22 percent lighter than the previous edition
More than 50 new photos
QR code links to 18 cutting videos
Product facts from 10 producer groups in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Australia
Culinary guidance from the American Culinary Federation (ACF)

For U.S. users,The Guide includes a complete update of all of the U.S. Institutional Meat Purchase Specifications (IMPS), making all of them current.

For Canadian users,The Guide represents the official Canadian government adoption of the same nomenclature for wholesale cuts and specifications, making it fully applicable to the Canadian meat trade. The online version will include French translations of the meat cuts.

For Mexican users, The Guide includes Spanish translations of meat cut names for the Mexican meat, foodservice and restaurant trades, and a complete Spanish translation in the online version.

New Meat Buyer’s Guide represents North American cooperation
NAMA’s predecessor, the North American Meat Processors Association (NAMP), started The Guide’s North American perspective in the previous edition four years ago. It included Canadian names for cuts where they were different from names in the U.S., and it added Spanish translations of the meat cut names. NAMP also published an English/Spanish edition and an online version.

NAMP also fostered the concept of making the specifications the same in the U.S. and Canada, starting five years ago. The idea gained government backing in 2011 when it was adopted by the U.S.-Canada Regulatory Cooperation Council (RCC). The RCC was established in 2011 by U.S. President Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and aims to reduce or eliminate unnecessary trade barriers.

NAMA organized the meat industry to work with USDA’s Agriculture Marketing Service (AMS) and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA). A NAMA-USDA-CFIA group worked for more than two years, receiving input from all parties involved in both the U.S. and Canada (government, industry, trade groups), and finding agreement on the items and terms in the beef, pork, lamb, veal, and poultry sections of the IMPS and The Guide.

Last February, USDA and the CFIA started a joint pilot program in harmonizing 22 of the most commonly trade wholesale meat cuts. NAMA featured those cuts in its online version of The Guide.

The USDA announced its extensive revisions today. The CFIA’s new Wholesale Meat Specifications Document (WMSD) will include the same meat cut names and specifications as the IMPS and The Guide.

In Mexico, NAMA is working with the meat, retail and foodservice trade associations to suggest they consider the IMPS as a framework for a specifications system, with flexibility for including cuts specific to Mexico.

Mexico does not yet have a formal system, and many in the meat trade see a major benefit to having the same system for all three NAFTA trading partners.

NAMP and NAMA have authored The Meat Buyers Guide since 1961. It is used as the premier resource publication for the meat and poultry industry, foodservice purchasers, educators, and students. This new edition is endorsed by 33 industry and foodservice associations.

NAMA serves the business and professional needs of its members and the North American meat & poultry industry through a variety of services and educational programs, meetings and seminars. Its members are center-of-the plate experts who satisfy their customer’s needs with quality products, professionalism and reliability.

Urner Barry, NAMA’s marketing partner, is the oldest commodity market news reporting service in America. For more than 150 years, Urner Barry has specialized in the timely, accurate, and unbiased reporting of market news to clients in the poultry, egg, meat and seafood, and related segments of the food industry, and offers a variety services, publications and products specific to the industry.

Pre-orders may be placed through: http://shop.meatbuyersguide.com, +1 800.932.0617, or help@urnerbarry.com. Covers may be customized with company names and logos, in time for corporate holiday gift-giving. Members of NAMA and the American Meat Institute (AMI) receive a members-only discount.

Source: NAMA