U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack announced Feb. 20 that a food labeling rule finalized in the last days of the Bush administration will go into effect as scheduled. The rule has been under review at USDA in accordance with a Jan. 20 memo from White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, which placed a moratorium on all final rules not in effect at the time President Barack Obama took office. However, Vilsack is asking food producers to follow additional voluntary country-of-origin labeling practices that could close loopholes left by the Bush rule.

In the USDA press release announcing the agency's intent to implement the rule, Vilsack released a letter to producers outlining the additional labeling practices and said USDA intends to track industry compliance before deciding whether the rule should be amended to achieve the intent of Congress. Vilsack is quoted as saying, "I strongly support Country of Origin Labeling – it's a critical step toward providing consumers with additional information about the origin of their food."

Country-of-origin labeling (COOL) was mandated by Congress in the 2002 farm bill. The law required beef, lamb, pork, fish, perishables, and peanuts to be labeled. Subsequent appropriations legislation in 2004 and 2005 delayed implementation of COOL practices until September 2008.

To meet this deadline, the Bush administration issued Aug. 1, 2008, an interim final rule (a rule published first as a final rule instead of a proposed rule and with the opportunity to comment at the time the rule is promulgated). The Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008, known as the 2008 farm bill, expanded the list of products covered by COOL requirements.

Vilsack's Feb. 20 letter to industry groups indicated that after reviewing the final rule promulgated by the Bush administration, he had "legitimate concerns" about some of the rule's provisions. Specifically, he noted "treatment of product from multiple countries, exemptions provided to processed foods, and time allowances provided to manufacturers for labeling ground meat products." Despite these concerns, Vilsack is allowing the final rule to go into effect March 16 but is "suggesting" that the manufacturers adopt additional practices to provide consumers with greater information.

For example, because of confusion about how to label meat products that pass through different countries during production, the label should indicate which "production steps occurred in each country." Thus, an animal born, raised, and slaughtered in different countries has to bear a label indicating in which countries the animal was born, raised, and slaughtered.

Vilsack also criticized the rule's definition of "processed food" as possibly too broad. The rule exempts foods if processing would "change the character" of the food item, if the item is combined with some other food item, or if the item is cooked, cured, or smoked. For example, a bag of combined frozen peas and carrots in a grocery store is considered a processed food even though a bag of frozen peas and a bag of frozen carrots are not considered processed and, therefore, have to be labeled.

USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service is responsible for implementing the country-of-origin program. Vilsack's letter promises close scrutiny of producers' efforts to meet the voluntary steps before deciding on any amendments to the existing rule.