Country of Origin labeling rule to take effect March 16
February 24, 2009
World Trade\Interactive
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced Feb. 20 that the USDA’s Jan. 15 final rule on mandatory country of origin labeling will go into effect as scheduled March 16. Under the COOL regulation muscle cuts and ground beef, pork, lamb, goat, and chicken, wild and farm-raised fish and shellfish, fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables, peanuts, pecans, macadamia nuts and ginseng must be labeled at retail to indicate their country of origin. The final rule outlines requirements for labeling covered commodities and the recordkeeping requirements for retailers and suppliers, prescribes specific criteria that must be met for a commodity to bear a “United States Country of Origin” declaration and contains provisions for labeling covered commodities of foreign origin.
The COOL rule was published just prior to the Obama administration taking office and had been under regulatory review by the USDA pursuant to a Jan. 20 memorandum from White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. A USDA press release states that during this regulatory review process Vilsack determined that allowing the rule to go into effect and carefully monitoring implementation and compliance by retailers and their suppliers would provide the best avenue to evaluate the program. This evaluation period will inform the USDA’s consideration of whether additional rulemaking may be necessary to provide consumers with adequate information.
As expected, the USDA also sent a letter to stakeholders in the meat industry inviting them to voluntarily adhere to the following additional labeling practices.
• processors should include information about what production steps occurred in each country when multiple countries appear on the label (e.g., “Born in Country X and Raised and Slaughtered in Country Y”)
• COOL labeling is appropriate even if products are subject to curing, smoking, broiling, grilling or steaming
• the final rule allows labels for ground meat to bear the name of a country even if product from that country was not in the processor’s inventory for up to 60 days, but this time allowance should be reduced to 10 days
The letter states that the USDA will be closely reviewing industry performance in relation to these suggestions for voluntary action and that depending on that performance it will consider whether modifications to the COOL rule will be necessary.
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