Price spreads measure the allocation of the consumer dollar among the various stages of production and marketing in the livestock/meat industry. Price spreads depict monthly average values, and the differences among those values, at the farm, wholesale, and retail stages of the production and marketing chain. Meat price spreads outline the current methodology ERS uses to determine farm, wholesale, and retail values for meat. (ERS is required by the Livestock Mandatory Reporting Act of 1999 to continue using retail prices from the Bureau of Labor Statistics in calculating price spreads for 2 years after the first release of the retail scanner prices for meat.)

Random-weight items are products sold individually—such as a T-bone steak or a turkey breast—or in packages—such as a multipack of chicken legs or pork chops—that vary in weight. Most meat and produce items sold in supermarkets are random-weight products. In contrast, fixed-weight items—such packaged lunch meat—are sold in standard-sized packages with fixed weights.

Supermarkets are retail grocery stores with dairy, produce, fresh meat, packaged food, and nonfood departments and annual sales of $2 million or more.

Uniform Retail Meat Identity Standards (URMIS) codes were established in 1973 by the National Cattlemen's Beef Association. The system was developed to provide a retail-meat-cut identification system and a standardized nomenclature for every retail red meat item (beef, veal, lamb, and pork). The goal of URMIS is to eliminate consumer confusion caused by the proliferation of names used to describe retail meat cuts. Before URMIS, a specific retail cut had several different names depending on the store or region of the country in which it was sold. For example, a Kansas City strip, New York strip, and beef loin steak are all the same cut. While the URMIS standards have been part of the industry for several decades, the program is strictly voluntary and has seen mixed levels of implementation.

Volume index compares the month's volume of sales to the monthly average of volume sold in 2001. For example, 500 pounds of ground chuck was sold in June 2001. For all of 2001, the monthly average was 400 pounds. Putting this on an index basis (with 2001=100), the index value for ground chuck for June 2001 would be 125. In the LMIC's meat scanner database, the volume index is reported for each cut and aggregate category.