“Product of USA” Labels on Meat, Poultry, Eggs to Get Stricter Requirements

The Department of Agriculture is proposing to amend its regulations to specify that the voluntary “Product of USA” or “Made in the USA” label claims may only be used on meat, poultry, and egg products when they are derived from animals born, raised, slaughtered, and processed in the U.S. Comments on this proposal are due no later than May 12.

USDA states that under this proposed rule these label claims would continue to be voluntary. They would also be generically approved for use on (1) single-ingredient, USDA-regulated products derived from animals born, raised, slaughtered, and processed in the U.S. and (2) multi-ingredient USDA-regulated products if (a) all regulated components are derived from animals born, raised, slaughtered, and processed in the U.S. and (b) all additional ingredients, other than spices and flavorings, are of domestic origin (i.e., all preparation and processing steps of the ingredients are completed in the U.S.). Such claims would require supporting documentation to be on file for USDA inspection personnel to verify.

The rule also proposes to allow other voluntary U.S.-origin claims on meat, poultry, and egg products sold in the marketplace. These claims would need to include a description on the package of all preparation and processing steps that occurred in the U.S. upon which the claim is made.