Agriculture Secretary Vilsack strengthens COOL

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced last week that it would move forward with the Bush administration’s rules for the Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) program, but asked industry to voluntarily adhere to stricter guidelines.

As we have previously reported, COOL requires supermarkets and grocery stores to label what country a given product comes from. The rules, which previously covered fish and food packaged abroad, were extended in 2008 to cover meats, poultry, fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables, as well as macadamia nuts, peanuts, pecans, and ginseng. But the Bush administration’s rules left some glaring loopholes. For one, the law exempted processed foods, and the Bush administration chose to interpret that very broadly to include anything that was fried, broiled, grilled, boiled, steamed, baked, roasted, cured, smoked, or emulsified and extruded. So while uncooked chicken and shrimp, or raw peanuts would be labeled by country, fried chicken, grilled shrimp, and roasted peanuts, would not require a label of origin.

But Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack issued a letter * last Friday to industry representatives suggesting they voluntarily adhere to stricter guidance. “Even if products are subject to curing, smoking, broiling, grilling, or steaming, voluntary labeling would be appropriate,” wrote Vilsack.

The letter also urged industry representatives to provide additional information regarding meat produced in multiple countries, suggesting that the meat should be labeled with the countries in which the animal was born, raised, and slaughtered. Vilsack’s guidance would allow those who process ground meat 10 days, instead of the previous 60, to change their label of origin after switching inventory.

“We're extremely pleased that Secretary Vilsack has decided to limit the loophole for processed food. The vast majority of peanuts that consumers eat are roasted, and consumers want to know where they came from. However, it will be important to monitor closely whether companies follow this guidance, since compliance is voluntary,” said Jean Halloran, director of food policy initiatives at Consumers Union. Vilsack said that the Department of Agriculture will evaluate compliance with its new guidance, and then decide whether further modifications to the rules are necessary.

—Kevin McCarthy, associate editor

For more information, see our COOL tool, and read about our efforts on COOL.

* links to pdf