How (Not) To Use USDA's New Meat Labels To understand how far Americans are from knowing anything about the provenance or safety of grocery store meat, just look at the 12-year battle over Country of Origin Labels. (Warning: This post contains a photo of dead animals.) BuzzFeed / Macey J Foronda Last month, Nestlé USA made an announcement that sent shockwaves through the after-school snack community: Two varieties of Hot Pockets were being recalled for potentially containing "diseased and unsound animals." The culprit was California's Feeding Corporation Rancho, a slaughterhouse and processing plant that had to recall 8.7 million pounds of beef, extending to 2,000 stores, including giants like Walmart and Kroger, in 32 states and Guam. Rancho's bad meat likely made its way into other foods besides Hot Pockets. But you, the consumer, have no way of knowing which ones. That's not public information — despite the sparkly new meat labels that the U.S. government just ordered into grocery stores. But when the new labels appeared in November you may not have noticed, because it's not like they're brimming with information. They tell you in which countries your meat was born, raised, and slaughtered — the bare minimum of transparency already required of, say, fruit and vegetable producers. But it took 12 years, two sets of federal rules, two lawsuits, and a World Trade Organization dispute to put those labels there. Just last month they were challenged again in Farm Bill negotiations. In fact, the story behind the Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) law opens a window into just how difficult and costly it will be for the government and the meat industry to give us information about where our meat comes from by the time it gets to the grocery store — especially if that meat is processed first. Since it was approved by Congress and signed into law by President Bush in 2002, COOL has faced an uphill battle. An original version seemed simple enough — requiring grocery stores selling beef, lamb, pork, chicken, and goat to label the meat "with its country of origin." But that task didn't prove so easy; the U.S. government struggled to accurately describe packaged meat origins given the complexity of the industry. (I imagine the conversation went something like this. USDA: "So we could have two T-bones in one package, one from a cow raised in the U.S. and one from a cow born and raised in Mexico but slaughtered in the U.S. in the same package? And both would say 'Product of USA'?!" Meat packers: "Yes. What's the problem?") Then came the years and dollars spent by meatpackers and grocers who fought the labels at every turn, saying the cost of keeping animals separated was more than the meat industry could handle. On top of that, there have been protests from Mexico and Canada, who believe this law will hurt meat exports. Against these odds, COOL prevailed, and the labels are now in place to tell you what countries these animals passed through before they ended upon your plate. But can you use them to help you avoid meat the USDA has decided could be unsafe? No. Can you use them to avoid meat raised in a way you might consider unethical? No. Can you actually use them at all? Not really. Slaughterhouse workers dissect, sort, and separate beef parts. Under COOL, workers will not be able to process animals from different origins simultaneously. Flickr: 41284017@N08 / U.S. Department of Agriculture Right now, there are more than 70 ongoing food recalls in the U.S., almost all of them for meat products. For consumers looking to avoid that meat, the new COOL labels aren't helpful. The labels aren't required for processed meats, which account for the majority of recalls. Plus, recalls are issued by names of companies or plants, and the new COOL labels don't tell us company names or plant names, they tell us countries. Of these 70-plus recalls currently happening, two involve Canadian meat. But consumers can't really in good conscience use the new COOL labels to avoid all Canadian meat just because one Ontario company, Santa Maria Foods Corporation, is recalling more than 10,000 pounds of various meat products. View Entire List ›

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