Buyer guides
Wholesale buyer guides
Cut names, grades, trim, catch weight and receiving notes for stores, restaurants and food trucks. The matching questions also live in the wholesale buyer FAQ.
Steak Menu Specs for Delivery-Only Kitchens: Cuts, Portions and Names
How a new delivery-only steakhouse can pick menu steaks by IMPS number, choose portion-cut or in-house cutting, and avoid confusion over retail names like petite sirloin.
Signed Receiving and Cold Chain: What Counts as Delivery
How wholesale buyers define a completed meat delivery, handle unsigned drop-and-go cases, and protect cold chain on high-value items like IMPS 109 rib and 189A tenderloin.
Beef Quality at Receiving: Primal Specs, Steatosis and Ink in the Grind
How wholesale buyers lock down ribeye and strip specs, tell marbling from muscular steatosis, and handle blue flecks or foreign material in ground beef.
Ribeye, Strip or Chuck Tender? How Wholesale Buyers Lock Down Beef Cut Names
Retail beef names vary by store and region. Here is how we use IMPS numbers, trim specs and thickness so every ribeye, strip and chuck tender ships as quoted.
Select, Choice, Prime and Blade Tenderized: What Beef Labels Tell Wholesale Buyers
What separates USDA Select, Choice and Prime, what a mechanically tenderized label means under FSIS rules, and why vacuum-packed beef can smell sweet on opening.
Whole Packer Brisket for Wholesale Buyers: Size, Splits and Trim for Barbecue and Pastrami
Why brisket weights vary, what a split brisket is, and how to trim and specify brisket for barbecue, corned beef and pastrami programs.
Skirt Steak Trim and Ground Beef Lean Points: A Buyer's Guide
Inside vs outside skirt, peeled vs unpeeled, and how buyers use the stated lean point on trim and grinds.
Whole Hog, Boston Butt or Pork Sirloin? A Wholesale Guide to Pork Cuts
How pork primals break down, why sirloin roasts are scarce, why butts get split, and when restaurants should buy primals instead of whole hogs.
Why the Invoice Doesn't Match the Estimate: Catch Weight, Yield and Buying Beef by the Pound
How catch-weight pricing works, why hanging weight differs from packaged yield, and how buyers should compare a beef share with buying cuts.
Woody Breast, Yellow Flecks and Hot Holding: A Chicken Quality Guide for Buyers
What woody breast, white striping, yellow flecks and dark vessels in chicken mean, what to reject at receiving, and FDA Food Code hot-holding temperatures.
Salmon Purge, Shrimp Counts and Frozen Fish: Seafood Quality for Wholesale Buyers
What salmon purge and color changes mean, how shrimp counts work, when frozen fish is still safe, and how to keep the seafood cold chain intact.