USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service plans to propose a new rule that would essentially create a voluntary country of origin label that could be used on beef products fabricated from livestock that have been born, raised and slaughtered in the United States.
FSIS laid out its plan in its response to the U.S. Cattlemen’s Association (USCA) petition, submitted last October, regarding beef products labeling. USCA had asked the agency to amend its Food Standards and Labeling Policy Book so that any beef labeled in such a way as to lead the buyer to believe it came from U.S. livestock, had to in fact be fabricated from U.S. livestock, or mandatory country-of-original labeling.
USCA’s petition was put for public comment. In its response to the association, FSIS said it considered all of the comments that were submitted.
“The Agency has determined that a voluntary U.S. meat product origin labeling policy that focusses on where the product is made, i.e., where the livestock are slaughtered and processed, without regard to where the source animals were born, may more accurately reflect what ‘origin’ means with respect to meat products processed in the United States and will thus result in labels that are truthful and not misleading.”
USCA said it was dissatisfied with the response: “The second round of rulemaking will effectively take producers out of the equation when it comes to the labeling of U.S. beef products as FSIS will look to redefine the term “origin”, to instead refer to the packing house or processing facility, rather than the ranch.”
USCA said it would continue to pursue a legislative path to its goal of mandatory country-of-origin labeling.