USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service will no longer enforce country-of-origin labeling requirements for beef and pork, but it is also developing guidance for companies that may wish to make “geographic claims,” according to the Hagstrom Report. An FSIS memo to inspection personnel this week said “FSIS is developing guidance for federally inspected establishments related to geographic claims they may wish to make on beef and pork muscle cuts and ground products with the COOL regulations no longer being enforced.” The memo comes after the omnibus spending bill that included a repeal of COOL was signed on Friday. USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack did not say anything about FSIS developing voluntary geographic claims standards in his statement regarding COOL last week. It is unclear how FSIS’s plan to develop geographic claims standards will fit into the WTO case. The National Farmers Union and consumer groups have said that consumers want to know where their beef and pork come from and will continue to demand labeling.
Welcome
