🌾 Is your meat or poultry from Minnesota?
A Minnesota package carries one of two inspection marks: a federal USDA/FSIS establishment number or a Minnesota state establishment number issued under the state “Equal-To” (E2) program by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. The checker below searches both. Neither mark, on its own, tells you where the animal was raised.
Looking for a national brand or large processor? Full Processor Lookup →
Two Minnesota inspection marks — and what each one actually means
1. Federally inspected in Minnesota (USDA/FSIS)
The USDA/FSIS establishment number on the label (EST. ####, sometimes with an M or P prefix) belongs to a plant located in Minnesota. This is a federal fact about where the product was slaughtered or processed under inspection, and the product can be sold anywhere in the country. Minnesota has a large federal footprint — roughly 200+ federally inspected meat, poultry, and egg plants, including major operations like Hormel Foods (Austin), JBS USA Pork (Worthington), Jennie-O Turkey Store facilities in Willmar and elsewhere, and Long Prairie Packing. The plant location does not mean the animal was born or raised in Minnesota — the label’s Country/State-of-origin claim, not the plant location, tells you that.
2. State-inspected in Minnesota — the “Equal-To” (E2) program
The label bears Minnesota’s state mark of inspection with a state establishment number issued by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, Dairy & Meat Inspection Division. Meat from these plants is inspected under a program the federal government has certified as “at least equal to” federal inspection, but may generally be sold only within Minnesota. Minnesota participates in the federal Cooperative Interstate Shipment (CIS) program, so a qualifying E2 plant (generally ≤25 employees) can earn interstate shipping rights. Like the federal mark, a Minnesota state legend tells you where the product was processed — not where the animal was raised.
Check an establishment number — state or federal
Type the number after “EST.” on your package. FAT checks it against both the current Minnesota Department of Agriculture E2 plant list and the federal USDA/FSIS inspection record.
Sources: USDA/FSIS establishment directory, mirrored by FAT; Minnesota Department of Agriculture “Equal-To” plant list (updated weekly by MDA; snapshot dated 2026-07-09). · Full Meat Processor Lookup →
Minnesota’s federally inspected meat, poultry & egg plants
Minnesota’s federal roster is roughly twenty times the size of Montana’s — too long to enumerate here without becoming stale within a week. For any specific EST. #### on a package, use FAT’s Meat Processor Lookup, which mirrors the FSIS establishment directory and returns the plant name, location, and enforcement history in one lookup. A handful of the largest MN federal operations for orientation:
- Hormel Foods Corporation — Austin, MN (flagship pork plant; corporate headquarters)
- JBS USA Pork — Worthington, MN (one of the largest pork plants in the country)
- Jennie-O Turkey Store (a Hormel subsidiary) — Willmar, Faribault, Melrose, MN (turkey slaughter + further processing)
- Long Prairie Packing Company — Long Prairie, MN (beef)
- Cargill Meat Solutions — several MN feedmill and processing sites
These are illustrative, not exhaustive. Confirm the specific plant on your label via the Processor Lookup.
Minnesota’s state-licensed (“Equal-To”) plants
The plants below are licensed and inspected by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, Dairy & Meat Inspection Division under a program certified by USDA as “at least equal to” federal inspection. Their meat can be sold, but generally only within Minnesota — unless the plant holds federal CIS status. If your package carries Minnesota’s state mark of inspection, the state establishment number matches one of these.
Minnesota E2 — Meat Slaughter Plants
The plants below slaughter livestock (cattle, hogs, goats, etc.) under continuous state inspection. Many also do further processing.
| Establishment | Location | MN E2 Est. No. |
|---|---|---|
| A & M Processing | Hamburg, MN | 625 |
| Belgrade Meat Center | Belgrade, MN | 1157 |
| Blue Ribbon Halal Meats | Monticello, MN | 523 |
| Chickenhead Farm & Slaughterhouse | Silver Lake, MN | 537 |
| Foley Locker Inc. | Foley, MN | 231 |
| Fox Farm Processing | Browerville, MN | 290 |
| French Lake Butcher Shop | South Haven, MN | 1241 |
| Hancock Quality Meats, LLC | Hancock, MN | 1293 |
| Havenwood Meats | New Germany, MN | 1236 |
| K & S Poultry & Meats | Kerkhoven, MN | 2097 |
| Kerkhoven Country Butcher | Kerkhoven, MN | 1271 |
| Klinder Processing | Carlos, MN | 1182 |
| Lakes Community Cooperative | Perham, MN | 845 |
| Milaca Meats | Milaca, MN | 4016 |
| Pep’s Pork | Melrose, MN | 1064 |
| Plantenberg’s Market Inc. | Richmond, MN | 215 |
| Round Table Meats | Goodview, MN | 2090 |
| Schaefers Market | Sauk Centre, MN | 789 |
| Stinson’s Country Style Meats | Houston, MN | 238 |
| Taylor Meats | Watertown, MN | 1292 |
| U of M Meat Science Lab (Dept. of Animal Science) | St. Paul, MN | 942 |
Minnesota E2 — Poultry Slaughter Plants
Only two E2 poultry slaughter facilities operate in Minnesota, and demand for E2 poultry slaughter exceeds capacity. MDA notes that most MN poultry slaughter happens at USDA-inspected plants.
| Establishment | Location | MN E2 Est. No. |
|---|---|---|
| K & S Poultry & Meats | Kerkhoven, MN | 2097 |
| Wild Acres Processing Inc.* | Pequot Lakes, MN | 1199 |
* Wild Acres slaughters only its own poultry — it does not accept birds from the general public.
Minnesota E2 — Processing-Only Plants (No Slaughter)
These plants do not receive live animals; they process meat and/or poultry into further products (sausage, jerky, prepared foods) for wholesale within Minnesota.
| Establishment | Location | MN E2 Est. No. |
|---|---|---|
| 3 Hmong Sausage | St. Paul, MN | 241 |
| Bemidji Downtown Meats | Bemidji, MN | 520 |
| Boga | Minneapolis, MN | 4015 |
| Como Meat | St. Paul, MN | 4001 |
| Creative Catering | St. Paul, MN | 518 |
| Crescent Moon | Minneapolis, MN | 529 |
| Dehmer’s Meats Inc. | St. Michael, MN | 788 |
| Do North Pizzeria | Hermantown, MN | 271 |
| Edel’s Meat Market | Montgomery, MN | 770 |
| El Rancho | Marshall, MN | 4009 |
| Evansville Meat Market | Evansville, MN | 533 |
| Grand Champion Meats | Foley, MN | 4002 |
| Greg’s Meat Processing | Hampton, MN | 1180 |
| Kadejan Market | Alexandria, MN | 4006 |
| Kowalski’s Central Meat Facility | Shoreview, MN | 534 |
| Kramarczuk Sausage Co., Inc. | Minneapolis, MN | 280 |
| La Loma | Minneapolis, MN | 260 |
| Let’s Dish | Woodbury, MN | 525 |
| M & M Coffee LLC | Minneapolis, MN | 4013 |
| Modern Kitchens Inc. | Edina, MN | 264 |
| Nerstrand Meat | Nerstrand, MN | 253 |
| Oak & Steel Smokehouse | Cologne, MN | 4017 |
| Rucks Meat Market | Belle Plaine, MN | 8921 |
| SomAmerican Food Distribution Services Inc. | Minneapolis, MN | 510 |
| Sutton Investments | New Hope, MN | 242 |
| Thielen Meats of Pierz Inc. | Pierz, MN | 830 |
| Tike’s Trophy Meats | Cohasset, MN | 4011 |
| Wick’s Meat Shoppe | Kandiyohi, MN | 860 |
| Wiste’s Meat Market | Janesville, MN | 891 |
Source: Minnesota Department of Agriculture — Minnesota State “Equal To” Plants, snapshot 2026-07-09. MDA updates the list weekly; contact the Dairy and Meat Inspection Division at 651-201-6300 to confirm current status. Custom-exempt processing plants (process animals for the owner’s use only; packages must be marked “Not For Sale”) are a separate MDA license category — see the MDA custom-exempt plant list.
The Minnesota rules behind the E2 mark
| Minnesota authority | What it does |
|---|---|
| Minn. Stat. ch. 31A (Meat and Poultry Inspection Act) | Establishes Minnesota’s cooperative inspection program with USDA/FSIS; authorizes MDA to license, inspect, and enforce. |
| Minn. Stat. § 31A.02 | Annual license required to slaughter, process, store, or wholesale meat or poultry in Minnesota — including custom-exempt processors. |
| Minn. Stat. § 31A.15 | The exemptions: personal-use slaughter, custom-exempt (“Not For Sale”) processing, and the under-1,000-bird small-flock poultry exemption (which follows federal P.L. 90-492). |
| Minn. Rules ch. 1550 | Adopts the federal meat & poultry regulations (9 CFR 300–500) as Minnesota law by reference — the same sanitation, HACCP, and labeling rules that federal plants follow, applied to E2 plants. |
| Cooperative Interstate Shipment (CIS) | Federal program (2008 Farm Bill; implementing regulations 9 CFR 321). Minnesota participates. A qualifying MN E2 plant (generally ≤25 employees) can be selected for CIS, at which point its product can move in interstate commerce under a federal-style mark. |
| Minn. Stat. § 28A.152 (Cottage Food Law) | Direct producer-to-consumer sales of certain homemade, non-potentially-hazardous foods. Excludes meat and poultry — the cottage food route does not create a legal path to sell uninspected beef, pork, lamb, or bird meat in Minnesota. |
Enforcement records: the same transparency gap Montana has
For federally inspected plants, enforcement is public and queryable — recalls, suspensions, and quarterly enforcement reports (see FAT’s Processor Lookup). For state-inspected E2 plants, MDA is required to run an enforcement system “at least equal to” FSIS — but Minnesota, like every state FAT has reviewed, does not publish an equivalent plant-level enforcement database. The noncompliance records exist; they are reachable through Minnesota Government Data Practices Act (Minn. Stat. ch. 13) data requests, but not through a live public dashboard. The public window that does exist: FSIS’s annual “at least equal to” reviews of each state program, published on the FSIS website — Minnesota’s E2 program is reviewed on the same cycle as Montana’s. A state legend means real inspection; it also means a thinner public paper trail. FAT counts that difference as a transparency fact, the same way it does for Montana.
Why FAT keeps “processed in Minnesota” and “raised in Minnesota” separate
An establishment number — state or federal — identifies the inspected plant where a product was processed. Minnesota’s large federal plants (Hormel-Austin, JBS-Worthington, Jennie-O-Willmar) routinely process animals raised in many other states. So a Minnesota establishment number is solid evidence of processing in Minnesota — but the only reliable statement about where the animal was raised is the label’s own Country- or State-of-origin claim (for example “Product of the U.S.A.” or a specific “Raised in Minnesota” or “Minnesota Grown” claim). FAT reports each fact for what it is and never lets one stand in for the other.
Prepared by Dirk Adams with the assistance of AI.