US to issue "higher" standards for origin labels in imported meat

A law requiring meat to be labelled by country of origin will go into effect as planned in March, but the government will be asking producers to go above and beyond what the law will require of them, the US Department of Agriculture announced Friday (February 20).

 

The rule, which the Bush administration wrote to implement the labelling law passed by Congress last year, doesn't go far enough to inform consumers where their food comes from, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a letter to industry representatives.

Vilsack said some parts of the rule "raise legitimate concerns."

 

To address those concerns he said he was asking the meat industry to voluntarily add more information on the labels for what they produce and keep tighter track of inventoried products and where they came from.

 

"In order to provide consumers with sufficient information about the origin of products, processors should voluntarily include information about what production step occurred in each country when multiple countries appear on the label," Vilsack instructed meat producers.

 

Furthermore, under the Bush administration rule, ground beef makers could leave labels for inventoried product unchanged for 60 days even if they no longer accurately reflected the origin of the meat.

 

"This provision allows for labels to be used in a way that does not clearly indicate the product's country of origin," Vilsack said in the letter. "Reducing the time allowance to 10 days would limit the amount of product with these labels and would enhance the credibility of the label."

 

Vilsack said it would be a voluntary decision for industry to follow these additional demands, but he also threatened to redo the federal rule if companies didn't comply.

 

USDA, he said, "will be closely reviewing industry compliance with the regulation and its performance in relation to these suggestions for voluntary action."

 

The American Meat Institute announced Friday that it was pleased the rule would be implemented on schedule in March, but made no promises about compliance with Vilsack's extra demands on industry.

 

AMI President J. Patrick Boyle said the "extent that companies are able and elect to go beyond these federal labelling requirements, as requested today by...Vilsack, is an individual company decision."