What are the USDA Peanut Butter Colour Standards?

Commercial grade peanut butter

Understanding USDA Grade Ratings and the Role of Colour Standards in Evaluation

The USDA quality system assigns peanut butter quality rating of USDA Grade A, Grade B and Other based on 4 attributes that total 100 points.

Colour – 20 points

Consistency – 20 points

Absence of defects – 30 points

Flavor and aroma – 30 points

All four quality characteristics are based on sensory qualification but colour can be quantified.

The USDA Peanut Butter Colour Standards are a set of 4 plastic chips that serve as visual guides used for defining the colour of processed peanut butter defining USDA Grade A (2 to 3 Medium Brown) between too light (1 Light Brown) and too dark USDA Grade B (4 Dark Brown).

USDA Peanut Butter Colour Standards

The reference document for these US Peanut Butter Colour Standards is:

US Standards for Grades of Peanut Butter – February 5, 1972
Available on internet as a US Federal Standard from USDA/AMS GSA Washington, DC USA www.ams.usda.gov

Information on this method comes from:

Processed Products Branch
Fruit and Vegetable Division, AMS
U.S. Department of Agriculture
Washington, D.C. 20090-6456 USA
www.ams.usda.gov

The physical Peanut Butter Colour Standards can be ordered from:

Equipment & Forms Depot
USDA, AMS, FVP, SCI
831 Mitten Road, Room 200
Burlingame, CA 94010 USA
+650-552-9073
FVSupplyDepot@ams.usda.gov

FAQ: “Is there any way to convert a spec for COLOUR MEDIUM ROAST, U.S.D.A COLOUR GUIDES #2.5 – 3.5 to something on a Hunter L, a, b scale?”

A USDA Peanut Butter Colour standard is a visual guide based on plastic chips and is different in appearance from actual peanut butter. While you can measure the colour of the Peanut Butter Colour chips as a direct approximation, the best correlation method is have several peanut butter quality experts visually evaluate the colour of the peanut butter using the USDA Peanut Butter visual guides for your product colour range of interest. Then measure the colour of the peanut butter using your standard method and look at the correlation of Hunter L or CIE L* (lightness) to the consensus grades of the quality group.

This will give you the best correlation to these USDA Peanut Butter grades, and you should be able to report to a single decimal place if you are doing instrumental measurement.

FAQ: “Do you have more information on colour defects in peanut butter?”

Colour defects involve spatial information separate from colour. Typically colour defect evaluation is performed visually under uniform viewing conditions. The USDA offers a photo guide as a starting point for defect evaluation.

USDA Peanut Butter, PG-4 Photo Guide for peanut butter – January, 2008

USDA Peanut Butter, PG-4 Photo Guide for peanut butter illustrating dark particles in peanut butter – January, 2008 Available on internet as a US Federal Standard from USDA/AMS GSA Washington, DC USA www.ams.usda.gov