What Stream B asks
Does the listing tell you where each life-stage of the animal happened — born, raised, slaughtered, processed — and was the animal processed locally or shipped to a multi-state facility?
What you’ll usually find in a directory listing
State of origin is implicit: a Minnesota Grown listing means the producer is in Minnesota. What’s typically missing is everything beyond “raised here.” Where the animal was processed is the most common gap, because most small producers contract with regional USDA-inspected plants that are not on the producer’s property. For seafood, the missing information is usually the specific water body or FAO area for wild-caught, or the farm’s location for aquaculture.
Stream B reveals the difference between a producer who can answer “born, raised, slaughtered, processed — all four” and a producer who can only answer “raised, here.” That difference is the difference between a Level 2 and a Level 3 traceability score.
Three-step spine for Origin on a directory listing
Required basics — what the directory itself surfaces. The state of operation is the directory’s raison d’être. A Kentucky Proud listing always tells you the producer is in Kentucky.
Verified programs — what a third-party seal proves. USDA Organic verifies the farm location and the chain of custody for organic feed. The American Grassfed Association requires U.S. origin and verifies it; appearing in the AGA roster establishes U.S. origin as third-party-certified. A producer who discloses the FSIS establishment number of their processor (rare, but possible on the producer-website side of a directory listing) lifts the slaughter and processing life-stages to regulator-confirmed.
Unverified marketing — what the producer says about themselves. “Locally raised,” “USA-raised,” “raised right here” — without naming the four life-stages and tying them to specific locations — sit at Partial. The 2024 USDA “Product of USA” rule (9 CFR Part 412, effective Jan 1, 2026) sets the federal standard for what “USA” actually means on a label; Stream B uses the same standard when scoring directory-listing claims and flags listings whose USA language doesn’t meet it.
Stream A vs. Stream B for this category
A retail label is governed by the “Product of USA” rule, the country-of-origin labeling rule (COOL) for muscle cuts and ground beef and pork (limited scope), and FSIS optional-claim rules. The label’s claim is regulated; what the label doesn’t have to say — where the animal was processed, in particular — is also Missing on Stream A unless the producer voluntarily discloses.
A directory listing inherits the implicit state-level origin from the directory itself but rarely names the processor. So both streams tend to land at Partial on Origin, but for different reasons: Stream A discloses because the rule requires it; Stream B discloses because the producer chose to.
Read the corresponding Stream A LEARN page on Country of Origin →
Verification ceiling callout
Stream B can score Origin up to: Regulator-confirmed, when an FSIS establishment number is disclosed and matches a publicly inspected plant. Otherwise: Third-party-certified (USDA Organic, AGA), or Producer-attested.
See the Stream B methodology for the full rubric and the four verification-ceiling tiers.
Sources
- 9 CFR Part 412 — USDA “Product of USA” rule, effective Jan 1, 2026.
- COOL (Country of Origin Labeling) — 7 USC § 1638a, scope limited to certain muscle cuts and ground products.
- FSIS Establishment Directory — used to verify processor location when a producer discloses an establishment number.
- USDA Agricultural Marketing Service — Organic INTEGRITY database, which records the certified operation’s location.
- American Grassfed Association — U.S. origin requirement for member producers.
Last reviewed: May 2026