How it works

Where the answers come from

Every result comes from one public source: the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Interstate Milk Shippers (IMS) List. Nothing is guessed or filled in.

The FDA list

Milk that crosses state lines must come from plants rated under the National Conference on Interstate Milk Shipments program. FDA publishes those plants, raw-milk supply groups and receiving stations, with their state and plant numbers, in the Interstate Milk Shippers List. It's released as a quarterly PDF and as state-by-state web pages.

The number on your carton is the state code plus the plant number from that list. Look it up on FDA's state page and you'll find the same plant we show you — every result links straight to it.

What we built

• We read every state page of FDA's online IMS listing (all 50 states plus Puerto Rico; D.C. has no listings) and stored each row exactly as FDA lists it: name and city, plant number, product codes, rating agency, and rating expiration date.
• That's 2,574 listings. 647 are plants that process products; 1,808 are raw-milk supply groups (“bulk tank units” of farms); 79 are receiving or transfer stations.
• Plant numbers are stored as text, so leading zeros are never lost.
• The website searches that local copy in your browser. It never queries a government site when you search.

October 28, 2026Source: FDA Interstate Milk Shippers List. Online state records retrieved Oct 28, 2026. Latest quarterly PDF: Oct 1, 2026.
Plant records can change. Verify details using the FDA link provided with each result.

You can download the full database and check any record against FDA.

What a result does — and doesn't — tell you

It tells you which facility in the FDA Interstate Milk Shippers List the code matches — the listed plant responsible for processing the product.

It doesn't tell you which farm the milk came from, where the cows were raised, who owns the brand, or whether two brands' milk is identical. A plant can bottle many brands to different specs from different milk supplies.

We also show the product categories FDA lists the plant for (for example “ultra-pasteurized milk” or “eggnog”). Those describe the plant, not your carton.

How tricky cases are handled

• Same number listed twice for one plant (for example a plant's aseptic line on a separate row): merged into one result.
• One number shared by a plant and its raw-milk supply group: we show the processing plant and mention the other listing.
• One number shared by two different facilities: we show every match and ask you to compare cities. We never pick one for you.
• Number only listed as raw-milk supply or a receiving station: we say so, because carton codes normally point to a processing plant.
• Leading zeros typed differently (42-92 vs 42-092): matched, with a note. If that creates more than one candidate, we list them.
• Rating expiration date already passed: shown with a warning that the listing may have changed since.
• Not in the list: we say “Not found in the current FDA directory” — never that the plant doesn't exist. Plants that ship only within their own state, or that closed, aren't on the list.

Locations

FDA's list gives a name and city, not a street address, so we don't show addresses. The map button searches Google Maps for the plant's name and city. The optional distance estimate uses the center of the listed city and the center of your ZIP code, so treat it as approximate. Some listings name a cooperative's office city in another state; we label those.

What's not included (yet)

• Brands made at each plant. We only show brand associations backed by dated, reliable evidence, and we don't have that yet — so none are shown.
• USDA's Approved Dairy Plant List covers manufacturing plants for USDA grading. We haven't cross-checked against it in this edition.
• Intrastate-only plants that aren't on FDA's interstate list.

How the data stays fresh

FDA updates its list continually and publishes a new PDF each quarter. We rebuild our copy from FDA's pages with a repeatable script, and the date of the copy you're using is always shown at the bottom of every page.

Found an error? Check the FDA link on the result. FDA's list is the authority; if ours disagrees, theirs wins.