The oyster should appear cream to beige in color, packed in a somewhat transparent liquor. The preferred flavor is a mild oyster with a slight salt taste. An excessive opaque or cooked appearance may denote too much heat used in a heat-shock assisted shucking process.

Discolorations are not uncommon but are usually removed during processing. Rarely, a shade of pink, green, or black can develop after packing. These seasonal discolorations are related to the oyster's diet and composition. They are not harmful, but should be communicated to the processor.

Damaged meats appear cut, torn, or can have remaining shell attached. Damaged meats should be avoided especially when whole meats are required for display, but they can still represent a wholesome product for other recipes.

Uniformity is a measure to assure all oysters in the same pack are of similar size. This attribute should be checked allowing tolerance since oysters are still graded by eye. Remember, larger is not necessarily better. Size preference depends on intended use.

Extraneous material such as shell fragments, sand, and other debris should be absent. Some processors use a cleaning process called "blowing" to rinse debris from the shucked oysters prior to draining and packing. The term "blowing" refers to the air bubbling process used to gently agitate the oysters.

Water content in a volume pack of shucked oysters should routinely be less than 15% by weight of the entire packaged contents. Slight variations in excess of 15% are possible in seasons and locations which influence the salinity of the harvest waters. An official method has been recommended for the drain weight or % water content in raw packed oysters.