How to Use the FAT App — Store, Counter, and Restaurant

The FAT App is built for real decisions: at the meat case, at the fish counter, and at the restaurant table. Photograph what’s in front of you, see what’s disclosed and how it’s verified, and choose based on your priorities — without guessing.

← Back to the FAT App page

The 60-second workflow

If you only remember one thing, remember this: photograph → check your priorities → check verification → ask.

At the store: scan a label

Tap Scan Label and photograph the package — meat, poultry, seafood or prepared food. FAT counts how many of the 16 transparency categories the label discloses, labels every claim with its verification tier, and names the plant behind the USDA establishment (EST) number with its public enforcement record.

What to check first

Prepared foods: stew, pizza, chowder, fish sticks

Use the same Scan Label button on a canned stew, a frozen pizza, a clam chowder or a box of fish sticks. FAT recognizes a prepared food where meat, poultry or seafood is one ingredient among many and reads it differently from a package of meat:

• Species is every meat, poultry, fish or shellfish ingredient named (“Contains: Beef, Pork”, “Contains: Clam”).
• Prepared seafood: origin and wild-or-farmed are not required on a processed seafood product, so they show as not applicable unless the brand states them. Fish and crustacean shellfish must still be named by species in the allergen statement. More on prepared seafood →
• Breed, farm, age, feed, welfare, medicine and hormones show as not applicable (blue), not missing — no U.S. rule requires a prepared-food maker to disclose them for ingredient meat. Any voluntary claim, such as “made with organic chicken,” still counts.
• USDA or FDA? Products with enough meat or poultry (roughly 3% raw or 2% cooked) are USDA-inspected and carry an establishment number — for the plant that made the product, not the slaughterhouse. Below that, FDA regulates the product and it legally carries no USDA mark.

How FAT reads prepared foods →

What USDA already requires on every label

Before any voluntary claim, federal law already puts a baseline on every USDA-inspected package: the product name; the USDA inspection legend with the plant’s establishment number; net weight; a handling statement on perishable products; the name and place of business of the company behind the product; an ingredients statement; nutrition labeling (unless exempt); and safe-handling instructions on raw products.

That baseline is the same for every product in the case, so it can’t tell one brand from another. Everything beyond it — how the animal was raised, what it ate, antibiotics, welfare standards, origin for beef and pork, the farm behind the product — is voluntary. Those voluntary disclosures are exactly what the FAT App reads, counts and checks.

Store-cut or store-ground meat with no EST number? That’s the USDA retail exemption, and the app recognizes it — read why.

At the fish counter: photograph the sign

Loose fish and shellfish at a full-service counter have no package to scan — only a sign. Tap Loose Seafood at a Counter, say where you are (a supermarket, or a fish market or butcher shop), and photograph the sign.

• At a supermarket, federal country-of-origin rules require the sign to show where the fish is from and whether it’s wild or farmed. FAT reads both and tells you if either is missing.
• At a fish market or butcher shop, those rules don’t apply, so anything posted is voluntary — and fair to ask about.
• Species can’t be confirmed from a photo. FAT reports the name as posted and flags species that are often swapped, such as snapper and grouper.
• Shellfish with a certified shipper number, and catfish with a USDA establishment number, can be traced to a certified source.

More in Service-Case Seafood.

At a restaurant: photograph the menu

Tap Restaurant Menu and photograph the part of the menu you’re ordering from (or import a screenshot of a QR-code menu). FAT finds the dishes with meat or seafood, explains what words like “grass-fed,” “Gulf shrimp” and “sustainably sourced” mean and don’t say, and picks the two or three questions that matter most for each dish. Tap Show to server to hand them over in large type.

Read How FAT Reads Menus →

How verification works in the FAT App

Many claims sound official but vary in strength. The app shows what the claim is and how it’s supported.

See the scoring framework →

Using the app for antibiotic claims

Antibiotic language is one of the most confusing parts of meat shopping. The app separates strong, verifiable programs from vague marketing terms.

Why this matters right now: FDA reported a sharp increase in sales and distribution of medically important antibiotics for food-producing animals in 2024. FDA also cautions that sales and distribution are not the same as on-farm dosing. Bird flu is viral, and antibiotics don’t treat viruses; outbreaks can be associated with antibiotic use for secondary bacterial infections, but sales data alone don’t establish a single cause.

Fast rules in the app

• Best: “No Antibiotics Ever” / “Raised Without Antibiotics,” with the verification tier clearly shown.
• Some value: clearly defined restrictions (for example, treatment-only policies) with verification disclosed.
• Low value unless defined and verified: “No growth-promoting antibiotics.”
• Don’t rely on: “Antibiotic-free” — USDA doesn’t approve this phrase on meat and poultry labels (the approvable claim is “Raised Without Antibiotics”). When you see it, it’s usually on signage, menus or websites, not the federally reviewed label.

Read the Antibiotics explainer →  ·  Read the Antibiotic Surge research brief →

Using the app for animal welfare claims

Welfare labels vary widely in what they require. Some programs meaningfully improve living conditions; others certify standards close to common practice. The app helps you tell which is which.

Read the Animal Welfare explainer →

Choosing between two products

Looking at two packages in the case? Scan both, then:

• Pick your top priority — welfare, antibiotics, feed or origin.
• Check the verification tier on that claim for each.
• Check what’s missing. “Not disclosed” is meaningful information.
• Make one trade-off consciously. Product A may have stronger welfare verification but no antibiotic claim; Product B may have a verified “No Antibiotics Ever” but a weaker welfare standard.

FAT doesn’t tell you what to prefer. It shows you the facts so you can choose intentionally. See Label Comparison →

Troubleshooting