AMS, Aisle by Aisle

Want more clarity on your groceries? AMS provides information and services to inform your grocery store purchases and help ensure the quality of what goes in your cart. Visit the aisles below to see how, or view the PDF. 

Produce | Dairy & Eggs | Meat | Bakery | Pantry

Produce

 
  1. If your pineapple has a sticker saying where it was grown, you can thank COOL - a law administered by AMS that requires grocery stores and some other retailers to tell customers where certain foods come from. AMS also inspects fruit like pineapples, as well as vegetables and other crops.
  2. Clamshell packages for grapes make it easy to see what you’re buying; AMS oversees marketing orders that regulate grape containers, quality and more.
  3. Buying organic? The USDA Organic seal is the only federally regulated organic label, and requires practices that preserve biodiversity and ecological balance. AMS also oversees the Plant Variety Protection Act, which encourages new plant varieties and helps ensure plenty of veggies to choose from at the store.

Dairy & Eggs

 
  1. About 70% of total U.S. milk production falls under a federal milk marketing order, authorized by AMS. Federal milk marketing orders determine minimum milk prices, which helps ensure that farmers are paid accurately and that there's an adequate supply of milk for consumers.
  2. Butter is among the many products that are quality graded by AMS. In 2023, we graded over 1.2 billion pounds of butter.
  3. Eggs are one of 22 commodities that are covered under AMS Research & Promotion Programs, which help industries promote and conduct research on their products.

Meat

 
  1. Curious about chicken prices? AMS keeps pricing transparent with free, unbiased data for hundreds of commodities.
  2. Look for Prime, Choice or Select labels on your beef- that means it’s been checked for quality by expert AMS graders. We also grade poultry, lamb and more, as well as verifying company standards such as no antibiotics use.
  3. We purchase ham and a host of other foods for school lunches, nutrition assistance programs and international food aid. AMS also helps the poultry, livestock and meat industries stay fair and competitive.

Bakery

 
  1. You can spot products with bio-engineered (BE) ingredients, since AMS oversees the law that requires disclosure of BE foods.
  2. While all wheat seeds may look similar, the wheat used for cake flour is usually softer than wheat used for pasta. We help ensure wheat and other seeds are accurately labeled via the Federal Seed Act.
  3. Wheat, rice, barley and numerous other grains are inspected and weighed by AMS-managed labs.

Pantry

 
  1. Some products on the shelf had AMS help getting there- our grant programs support maple syrup producers, beekeepers, and other agricultural producers with funding, research and marketing. We also help increase consumer access to locally sourced products, such as jam.
  2. AMS grades every bale of cotton produced in the U.S. and is recognized as the global leader in cotton fiber testing.
  3. We test commodities like peanut butter for pesticide residues; our free database has data from 1994-2022. AMS also administers the inspection and testing of peanuts and other nuts for toxins.