Labels Will Say If Your Beef Was Born In The USA (and many other food products)

[Whoa_Nelly]

Attention, grocery shoppers: You'll soon know the nationality of your steak, potatoes and kumquats.

A federal law that takes effect Sept. 30 will require supermarkets and other big food retailers to label or otherwise display the country of origin for meat, produce and certain kinds of nuts. A number of foods will be exempt, including processed foods like breaded chicken or packages of mixed vegetables. Still, the labeling rule is welcome news for consumers who base their decisions in part on where foods were raised or grown.

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The labeling rule, included in the 2008 Farm Bill passed this summer, applies to products sold in grocery stores and mass-merchandise outlets. It effectively exempts small food outlets and such places as butcher shops, restaurants and school cafeterias.

Consumer-advocacy groups have pushed for origin labeling for years, saying it can help shoppers avoid food from countries with lax safety regulations. Indeed, a rash of recent food scares in the U.S. and other countries seem to have raised consumers' awareness about where their food comes from.

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Poultry producers that haven't yet gotten new packaging printed will slap stickers on packages with the name of the country of origin, says Bill Roenigk, senior vice president and chief economist at the National Chicken Council. Most will carry a U.S.A. label, because more than 99% of the chicken sold in this country is hatched here, he says. The rest is imported mainly from Canada and a small amount from Chile.

The new labeling rules apply to meat from cows, lambs, chickens, pigs and goats, as well as to fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables, ginseng, macadamia nuts, pecans and peanuts.


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However, the labels won't apply to meat or produce that has been cooked or processed, such as corned beef and sausage. Plain ground beef must carry a label, but if a package contains a blend of meats from several countries, the rules don't require the countries to be listed in order of the percentage of food they contributed. A salad package containing different kinds of leaf lettuce will have to be labeled, but a package containing different kinds of vegetables, such as peas and carrots, won't.

Such exemptions limit the labeling rule's benefit to shoppers, consumer advocates say. "It's not going to be a panacea for consumers, but it's one step forward in creating accountability in the food supply," says Joseph Mendelson, legal director for the Center for Food Safety, a nonprofit public interest group in Washington.

More at:
http://wsj.com/article/SB122212214681364875.html

[Rosa Luxemburg]

1. we would also like to know what else there is in other foods

[FreakinDJ]

2. Soon we'll have "Melamine Free" labels

[Whoa_Nelly]

4. And by then, what else will the labels need to disclose

The food chain is broken :cry:

[blonndee]

3. A good start...and a shocking development.