United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Marketing Service
Institutional Meat Purchase Specifications — Sausage Products (Series 800)
What this source is
- Authority
- Official guidance
- Territories
- US
- Primacy
- primary
- Commercial interest
- none
- Retrieved
- 2026-08-15
- State
- Read and citable
THE ONLY DOCUMENT IN THIS CATALOGUE THAT STATES HOW WIDE A PIECE OF BARBECUE FOOD IS, and it does so because somebody has to manufacture a forming plate. Item 802A: patties 'mechanically formed into approximately round 4.0 inch (10.2 cm) diameter', with 2.0, 2.5, 3.0 and 3.5 inch as the other standard options. Item 800: frankfurter links '5 to 6 inches (12.7 to 15.2 cm) in length', required to be uniform in diameter without the diameter ever being stated. Retrieved directly from ams.usda.gov, which has served IMPS reliably ever since.
What it may be cited for
Technical, Terminology, Equipment specification
- Explicitly not safety: A purchase specification defines a product, not a safe cooking endpoint.