A butcher shop needs a state retail food license for the shop, certified scales, since everything is sold by weight, and the usual business layers. What sets it apart is a federal question: a shop that cuts and grinds meat for sale would need USDA inspection, unless it fits the retail store exemption. A shop selling cuts to the public can, and the exemption has conditions worth knowing before the first restaurant calls. The shop sells to consumers, with at least 75% of its meat sales to households and its sales to restaurants and other businesses under a yearly dollar limit FSIS publishes. It uses only inspected meat. It sells in normal retail quantities, no more than half a carcass in a purchase, 300 pounds of beef or 100 of pork. And for restaurants, it can cut, grind, break bulk and wrap, but not cure, smoke or cook; bacon it smokes itself goes to household customers only. In the example below, a Wisconsin meat market checks a supper club's order against the rules.
The short version
- A state retail food license for the shop, and certified scales.
- The USDA retail store exemption lets a shop cut and grind inspected meat without federal inspection.
- At least 75% of meat sales by dollar to household consumers; sales to businesses under FSIS's yearly limit.
- Only federally or state inspected meat comes in.
- No more than half a carcass in a purchase: beef 300 lb, pork 100 lb.
- For restaurants: cutting, grinding, breaking bulk and wrapping; no curing, smoking or cooking.
- TaroStack keeps each box's lot and each restaurant order's weights, so the mix and the limits are on record. More below.
The layers
| Layer | Who issues it | For a butcher shop |
|---|---|---|
| Retail food license | Your state or county | The shop, its case and its cutting room |
| Scales | The state's weights and measures program | Inspected and certified for trade |
| USDA retail store exemption | No license: a set of conditions | Sales mix, quantities, operations, inspected meat |
| Business registration and sales tax | Your state | As for any shop |
The license in more detail is in retail food license, and the grinding records the shop keeps in butcher shop inventory.
The rules
| Rule | Where |
|---|---|
| What a retail store does | Cutting carcasses and wholesale cuts into retail cuts, grinding, curing, cooking, smoking, breaking bulk, wrapping; not slaughter or retort canning (9 CFR 303.1(d)(2)(i)) |
| Normal retail quantity | No more than half a carcass in a purchase: cattle 300 lb, calves 37.5, sheep 27.5, swine 100, goats 25 (303.1(d)(2)(ii)) |
| Who it sells to | Consumers only; at least 75% by dollar value to household consumers; sales to other consumers under the yearly dollar limit (303.1(d)(2)(iii)) |
| What it uses | Only federally or state inspected and passed product (303.1(d)(2)(iii)(c)) |
| For non-household buyers | Cutting, grinding, breaking bulk and wrapping only (303.1(d)(2)(iii)(f)) |
Your state meat program may add its own rules. This is general information, not legal advice.
An example: a supper club's order
Sauk Prairie Meat Market, the made-up butcher shop in Sauk City, Wisconsin, I use in these examples, sells mostly to household customers and to two restaurants, a supper club and a brewpub:
| Month | To households | To restaurants | Share to restaurants |
|---|---|---|---|
| July | $46,000 | $3,100 | 6.3% |
| August | $48,500 | $2,900 | 5.6% |
| September | $45,200 | $3,200 | 6.6% |
The mix is well inside the 75% test, and the year's restaurant sales, about $36,000, are checked each January against FSIS's current dollar limit. In October the supper club asked for 320 pounds of beef in one order for a wedding, over the 300-pound half carcass, so the shop sold it 300 pounds and the club bought the rest from a state-inspected plant. The brewpub asked for the shop's house-smoked bacon; smoking isn't one of the operations allowed for restaurant sales under the exemption, so the bacon stays a counter item and the brewpub buys bacon from an inspected plant through its distributor. How each cut is costed is in butcher yield test.
Get the checker
Download the retail exemption checker. Three sheets: the sales mix, each month's sales to households and restaurants with the share and the 75% test; restaurant orders, each order's species and pounds against the half-carcass limit; and products to restaurants, what the shop does to each product and whether that's allowed for restaurant sales. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
The checker needs the month's restaurant sales and every order's weight typed in. The shop already has those numbers, in the register and on the invoices, but not in one place.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps each box's lot and each restaurant order's weights, so the mix and the limits are on record.
Receiving with lots. Each box from an inspected plant is received with its establishment's lot and date.
Restaurant orders by weight. Each restaurant is a customer, and each order records what it took by weight and lot, with the delivery note.
Margins by customer. Margins are reported by product and by customer, so the restaurants' year is one report.
| The job | Spreadsheet | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| Restaurant sales for the year | Added up from invoices | Reported by customer |
| Pounds in a restaurant order | On the invoice | On the order and delivery note |
| Which plant's box went where | Not recorded | Lots on each order |
Receiving, orders and lots are on every plan, from $49 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.