WHY CAN’T AMERICANS HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW WHERE THEIR FOOD COMES FROM? 

 USDA ENDS COUNTRY OF ORIGIN LABELING GUIDE FOR FOOD MANUFACTURERS (COOL) ENFORCEMENT OF DECEMBER 21, 2015

Effective immediately, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says, USDA will no longer enforce the Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) requirements for beef and pork products because COOL was repealed by Congress. 

Vilsack said labeling regulations on the books will be amended “as expeditiously as possible” to bring the beef and pork provisions into line.

It means an end to the January 2009 and May 2013 country of origin labeling requirements on muscle cuts of beef and pork, and on ground beef and pork. The Congress repealed (COOL) in the $1.4 trillion omnibus spending bill after the World Trade Organization (WTO) ruled Canada and Mexico could begin imposing more than $1 billion in tariffs on U.S. products to punish it for the harm the labeling requirements were doing to them. 

Section 179 of the spending bill strips U.S. citizens of their right to know the origins of the beef and pork and ground beef and ground pork that hundreds of millions of consumers purchase at retail grocery stores for themselves and their families. “Congress did this without any congressional debate, let alone public debate,” it continued. “Section 179 was cemented into the massive spending bill behind closed doors.” 

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The now “former” complete (COOL) regulations can be found at https://www.ams.usda.gov/rules-regulations/cool: COUNTRY OF ORIGIN LABELING GUIDE FOR FOOD MANUFACTURERS JUNE 2012 (COOL)

Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) is a labeling law that requires retailers, such as full-line grocery stores, supermarkets and club warehouse stores, to notify their customers with information regarding the source of certain foods. Food products covered by the law include muscle cut and ground meats: lamb, goat, and chicken; wild and farm-raised fish and shellfish; fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables; peanuts, pecans, and macadamia nuts; and ginseng. Regulations for fish and shellfish covered commodities (7 CFR Part 60, 270 lines of regulations to read) became effective in 2005. The final rule for all covered commodities (7 CFR Part 60 and 7 CFR Part 65) went into effect on March 16, 2009. (AMS) - Agricultural Marketing Service is responsible for administration and enforcement of COOL.

The complete COOL regulation can be found at: http://www.affi.org/sites/default/files/combined-cool-guide-2015-1.pdf (USDA)* - Covered commodities include muscle cuts of beef (including veal), lamb (including mutton), pork, goat and chicken; ground beef, ground lamb, ground pork, ground goat and ground chicken; farm-raised fish and shellfish; wild fish AFFI Country of Origin Labeling Guide 2 and shellfish; and fruits and vegetables (as well as peanuts; ginseng, pecans and macadamia nuts). (FTC) Federal Trade Commission - regulates claims regarding a commodity’s origin. “Made in the USA” claims are voluntary claims and are not required. 

If you choose to make such a claim, you must follow FTC rules. (CBP) U.S. Customs and Border Protection - rules apply to imported products. Once a foreign-origin commodity has undergone processing in the U.S. resulting in a change in name, character or use (also known as “substantial transformation”) or a change in the specified tariff classification for those commodities imported from Canada or Mexico, the commodity is considered a U.S. product. The commodity is exempt from CBP COOL requirements after processing.

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* So called “processed” food items are exempt from COOL. Specific processing that results in a change in the character of the covered commodity includes cooking (e.g., frying, broiling, grilling, boiling, steaming, baking, roasting), curing (e.g., salt curing, sugar curing, drying), smoking (hot or cold), and restructuring (e.g., emulsifying and extruding).