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Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack late Friday said the final rule for mandatory country-of-origin labeling will go into effect as scheduled on March 16, but he issued a letter asking that industry stakeholders voluntarily follow additional labeling practices.
The rule had been under review on the orders of the new presidential administration.
Vilsack said allowing the rule to go into effect and monitoring implementation and compliance by retailers and their suppliers would be the best way to evaluate COOL, and to determine whether additional rulemaking may be necessary.
In the letter, he expressed concerns about labeling product of mixed origins, labeling processed foods and time allowances for labeling ground meat products. He specifically asks processors to voluntarily:
- go beyond the current guidelines in defining on labels where an animal was born, raises and slaughtered
- use country-of-origin labeling on processed products that are cured, smoked, broiled, grilled or steamed (these items are currently excluded)
- limit the gap between when a product from a country was not present in a processor's inventory and when labels are changed to reflect that to 10 days instead of the 60 days allowed by law.
"The Department of Agriculture will be closely reviewing industry compliance with the regulation and its performance in relation to these suggestions for voluntary action. Depending on this performance, I will carefully consider whether modifications to the rule will be necessary to achive the intent of Congress," Vilsack said in the letter.
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