Acceptable Product Specification Deviations

Good morning!

So our company produces raw sausage and I am updating our finished product spec sheets but I am having a hard time finding an industry standard for deviation in sizing. We use natural hog casings, which fluctuate in sizing from one end of the casing to the other (casing sizes are usually a range, ie 30/32mm, 35/38mm, etc.), and our portioning system works off the weight we set it to. My issue is, if we produce a 4oz link and the spec is 6.5in, what sort of deviation to that sizing is industry standard? Just off the tests I have run on our products, I am thinking somewhere between ±0.25-0.5in but I can't seem to find anything anywhere regarding any industry standards.

Does anyone have any experience with something like this, or point me in the right direction?

Please let me know. Thanks, all!

Ricky

Since these fluctuations are a naturally occurring deviation in your finished product, I would write that into the spec. 

The weight for recipe A is always 4oz and may measure between X and Y due to the variance in the natural casing....

You said raw....you don't cook them so you don't need to include a variance in cook/smoke time to allow for the difference in diameter/density, correct?

Best bet is to measure 100 random links and then write your spec to those max and min.....no sense writing a spec that you will rarely meet

Thanks for your input, Scampi.

That's basically what I did but I just wanted to make sure I was doing it correctly.

And no, we don't do any cooking/smoking so I wouldn't have to include any variance for cooking time.

Basically my spec, as of now, reads "Length: 6.5in ±0.5in".

There is ISO 2768-1, a standard for general tolerances. People can indicate their desired tolerance level (fine, medium, coarse) into drawings or instructions with such standard.

Hope that it will fit your need.

Regards.