Rule Overview

    On December 18, 2009, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS or the agency) published in the Federal Register a supplemental proposed rule, “Nutrition Labeling of Single-Ingredient Products and Ground or Chopped Meat and Poultry Products” (the Supplemental).  74 Fed. Reg. 67736 (Dec. 18, 2009).  This rulemaking effort began in 2001 when the agency published the original proposed rule (the Proposal).  Citing the length of time that has passed since then, FSIS has elected to provide “the public an opportunity to comment on this supplemental proposed rule…. [and]…welcomes comments on relevant issues for which there is new evidence since the proposed rule was issued.”  Although the regulatory text of the Supplemental is virtually identical to the text proposed in 2001, the Supplemental provides extensive responses to comments previously submitted, as well as additional questions for public comment.

    Consistent with the 2001 Proposal, if promulgated as proposed, the Supplemental would require retailers to provide nutrition information for major cuts of meat and poultry either on the label or at point-of-purchase (POP).  Nutrition information would also be required for ground meat and poultry products but, unlike whole muscle cuts, ground products would be required to “bear nutrition labeling on their packages, unless an exemption applies.”  Failure to bear or provide nutrition information would render the products misbranded.  Nonmajor cuts of single-ingredient, raw products would not be required to bear nutrition labeling, but if plants or retailers voluntarily provided nutrition information for nonmajor cuts, it would have to comply with the requirements for the major cuts.

    The Supplemental would adopt the exemption and enforcement and compliance elements of the 2001 Proposal.  As with the Proposal, the Supplemental would permit a statement of lean percentage on the label or in labeling of ground products that do not meet the criteria for “low fat,” so long as a “statement of fat percentage is contiguous to, in lettering of the same color, size, and type as, and on the same color background as, the statement of lean percentage.”  The Supplemental also would exempt small businesses that use “statements of percent fat and percent lean on the label or in labeling of ground products” from the nutrition labeling requirements so long as those products do not include “other nutrition claims or nutrition information on the product labels or labeling.” 

    The Supplemental seeks comments regarding several questions posed.  Specifically, FSIS requested comments and information on the following questions and issues.  

1. How retailers or plants would prepare POP materials to address the possible combinations of percent fat and percent lean in ground products?
2. How POP materials would convey nutrient values of ground products that contain Advance Meat Recovery (AMR) product or product from low temperature rendering (e.g. finely textured beef)?
3. How consumers would identify which nutrient values on POP materials correspond to specific ground products if a statement of fat percentage or lean percentage is not required on the product?
4. The Supplemental requests “surveys, studies, or other data on consumers’ perception and use of point-of-purchase materials versus nutrition labels for ground products,” as well as consumers’ understanding of the ‘nutrient content of such products.”
5. Should statements of lean percentage be prohibited on the label or in labeling of ground products that do not meet the regulatory criteria for “low fat.”
6. Should FSIS permit the use of lean percentage statements if they are contiguous to fat percentage statements on the label of ground products, or are they inherently misleading to consumers if the product does not meet the regulatory criteria for “low fat?”
7. The Supplemental asks whether lean percentage statements are redundant on a label when contiguous to fat percentage statements?
8. Presuming the regulations should prohibit lean percentage statements on a label of ground products that do not meet the “low fat” criteria, would a fat percentage statement on the label of such products be useful and if such a statement would be useful, should it be required on the label for those products?
9. Should the final rule allow a lean percentage statement and fat percentage statement on the label of ground products produced by small businesses if such product does not include nutrition information on the product label? 
10. Presuming that nutrition information should be required on labels of any ground product for which a lean percentage and fat percentage statement is provided, what would be the cost of such a requirement for small businesses? 
11. The agency requested copies of surveys, studies, or other data on consumers’ use and understanding of lean percentage and fat percentage statements on ground or chopped products. 
12. Will providing nutritional tables be sufficient for retailers and establishments to provide nutrition labels for ground pork?
13. Will the available data for ground chicken and ground turkey in the USDA Nutrient Database be sufficient for retailers and establishments?

    Should this rule become final, the nutrition labeling requirements for ground products would become effective on January 1, 2012.  In contrast, the agency is proposing to make mandatory labeling requirements for the major cuts effective one year from the date of publication of the final rule.  The agency requested comments on the value of having two separate effective dates.  Comments on the Supplemental are due to the agency on or before February 16, 2010.