USDA Affirms Implementation of Final Rule on COOL and Secretary Issues Open Letter to Industry Encouraging Voluntary Expansion of the Regulations
Friday, February 20, 2009(American Meat Institute)
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)
issued a press release today stating that the
final rule for mandatory country of origin
labeling, published in January 2009, will go
into effect on March 16, as scheduled.
Accompanying the press release
was an "open letter" from Agriculture Secretary
Vilsack to industry officials encouraging
voluntary adoption of additional labeling
descriptors identifying where animals were
born, raised and slaughtered; more restrictive
inventory practices relating to the origin of
ground product; and the expansion of country of
origin labeling to certain categories of
processed products exempted under USDA's final
rule.
The letter suggests the following voluntary labeling changes:
- Labeling of product from animals with
multiple countries of origin.
Processors are being asked to include
information about what production step -- born,
raised and slaughtered -- occurred in each
country when the animal from which the product
was derived has multiple countries of
origin. For example, if the animal was
born in country X and raised and slaughtered in
country Y, the label should indicate that
distinction.
- The letter states that the definition of
processed foods contained in the Final Rule
“may be too broadly” drafted. Thus,
Secretary Vilsack suggests labeling products
that “are subject to curing, smoking, broiling,
grilling, or steaming” as well.
- The final rule allows a label for a ground meat product to bear the name of a country so long as meat from that country was present in the processor’s inventory within the last 60 days. The letter suggests that time allowance be reduced to 10 days.
AMI President and CEO J. Patrick Boyle issued the following statement in response to USDA’s open letter:
“We are gratified that the Department of Agriculture will allow the final rule implementing mandatory country of origin labeling to go into effect on March 16, 2009, as scheduled. AMI and its member companies actively participated in the six year rulemaking proceeding, which initially produced an interim final rule in 2008 and this final rule in 2009, to help develop regulations and prepare for the implementation of the final rule.
When the final rule becomes effective, we anticipate that almost 95 percent of beef and pork products eligible to bear a ‘Product of the USA’ label will bear such labeling.
To the extent that companies are able and elect to go beyond these federal labeling requirements, as requested today by Agriculture Secretary Vilsack, is an individual company decision, which will have to be made in collaboration with a company’s retail grocery customers, which ultimately are the entities that provide country of origin information to their consumers.“
To see a copy of the USDA letter in its
entirety, click here: http://www.meatami.com/ht/a/GetDocumentAction/i/46626
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