© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Cuts of meat are seen on the market at a butcher store in Manhattan, New York Metropolis, U.S., August 8, 2022. REUTERS/Andrew KellyBy Leah Douglas
(Reuters) – Corporations labeling their meat, poultry, or eggs as a U.S. product should increase and slaughter the animals inside the nation underneath a brand new rule proposed by the Biden administration on Monday.
U.S. ranchers had pushed for the change, arguing that current guidelines for the label – which enable its use for meat derived from animals that had been born and raised overseas and solely processed within the U.S. – deprived home producers.
The administration and U.S. Division of Agriculture (USDA) pledged to evaluate the “Product of USA” and “Made within the USA” label requirements for meat early final yr as a part of a broader technique to encourage competitors within the financial system as a complete and within the extremely consolidated meat sector.
“American shoppers anticipate that once they purchase a meat product on the grocery retailer, the claims they see on the label imply what they are saying,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack stated in an announcement.
The USDA carried out a client survey final yr that discovered nearly all of shoppers believed the “Product of USA” label means the product got here from animals born and raised within the nation, the company stated.
U.S. meat labeling has been contentious for years. In 2009, USDA finalized labeling requirements for meat that required nation of origin labeling, however the World Commerce Group blocked implementation of the usual in 2015 after Canada and Mexico introduced authorized challenges, arguing injury to commerce.
The “Product of the USA” label will stay voluntary underneath USDA’s proposed rule.
