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COOL implementation begins, final rule aheadBy Larry Dreiling COOL days are here for the U.S. food industry. Preliminary rules for country-of-origin labeling of U.S. food products took effect Sept. 30. A six-month "informed compliance" period is now under way in which the U.S. Department of Agriculture will evaluate comments on the preliminary rules before issuing final rules on the issue and beginning full enforcement April 1, 2009. At a telephone news conference marking the end of the comment period, Bruce Knight, Undersecretary of Agriculture for Marketing and Regulatory Programs, and Lloyd Day, administrator of the USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service, explained how USDA would be working with retailers to help them properly provide consumer information demanded under the new program. COOL is expected to cost $2.5 billion to implement and $9.6 billion annually to enforce, according to preliminary rules published in the Federal Register. "We will now be working with the retail establishments ... over the next six months under an informed compliance approach, working with them very closely, making sure they are implementing country-of-origin labeling in a manner, which will provide to consumers the information that they are looking for," Knight said. "This will apply to produce, to red meats, and will be very much in keeping with the rules that are already in place on fish and shellfish." Knight added that "probably around 175 to 200 comments" had been submitted to USDA on the proposed rules, which will be evaluated for incorporating into the final rule six months from now. Four-part plan For his part, Day described who must label, what must be labeled, determining the origin of product, recordkeeping and compliance and enforcement. "So, who must label? The retailer (about 36,000 of them) is where this marketing law is going to occur," Day said. "A 'retailer' is defined as: 'Any person licensed as a retailer under the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act.' The covered commodities are muscle cuts of beef, lamb, chicken, goat and pork; ground beef, ground lamb, ground chicken, ground goat, and ground pork; fish and shellfish (which is already in enforcement in the marketplace); perishable agricultural economies (that's fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables); peanuts, pecans, macadamia nuts and ginseng. "The law also excludes processed food items. And since the law did not define what 'processed foods' are, we did this in the 2002 Fish and Shellfish Rule. And we defined it as a 'change of character' or 'combined with another food component.'" Meat labeling plan As expected, the most significant changes under COOL will be in meat, as Congress ordered four broad categories for origin declarations. --The first would be "Product of the United States," such as animals born, bred and slaughtered in the U.S. --The second would be "Country of Mixed Origin," meaning a feeder calf that might come in from Canada or from Mexico, and that would be Product of U.S. and Canada, or Product of U.S. and Mexico, and in some cases product of all three. --The third category would be for slaughter animals, usually Canadian cows that are coming in for slaughter. They would be "Products of Canada and the United States." --And then the fourth area would be of foreign origin, such as "Product of Canada" or "Product of Mexico." Recordkeeping rules For recordkeeping, retailers and suppliers must provide records maintained in the normal course of business that may verify an origin claim within five business days at the request of a USDA representative, Day said. Any person engaged in the business of supplying a covered commodity to a retailer--directly or indirectly--must make information available to the buyer about the countries or origin of a covered commodity. Information can be provided on the product, master shipping container, or in a document that accompanies the product through retail sale. In general, records that identify the covered commodity, retail supplier, and origin information must be maintained for one year from the date the declaration is made at retail. Affidavits must be made by someone having firsthand knowledge and identify animals unique to a transaction. Feedlots or other entities can use affidavits they receive from producers or other entities as firsthand knowledge of the origin of livestock and then complete an affidavit affirming the origin of information to a subsequent purchaser. The party preparing a consolidated affidavit would retain the original affidavits or other appropriate records to substantiate the claim. "It's a little difficult to send millions of pieces of affidavits with every transaction that occurs in the United States herd. So, there's the opportunity as it goes up from a producer to an auction market, to a feed yard to a packer, to consolidate those affidavits and have something that we would call a composite affidavit," Day said. Enforcement rules Enforcement will take place under an official partnership established between USDA and the state departments of agriculture to assist with COOL retail surveillance responsibilities. Last year we looked at approximately 1,600 retail store reviews, and 540 of those audits showed violations of country-of-origin labeling requirements," Day said. "And within the 540 audits where violations occurred, there were 1,100 violations cited, which is an average of two violations per audit conducted. "When we go into the retail establishment, we point out these mistakes to the retailer. The retailer then has 30 days to initiate some kind of corrective action related to the violation and, so far in the history of our enforcement of this activity, there hasn't been a single fine taken." Day said only USDA can initiate enforcement actions, which includes a 30-day period allowed for violators to come into compliance with the regulations. "But once that's happened, if we do find retail establishments or suppliers that are willfully violating the law, the penalty is $1,000 per violation. And again, they have 30 days to come into compliance; so, we don't expect to have many people to be willful violators," Day said. USDA has set up a website including frequently asked questions on COOL, Day said. Those interested should visit www.ams.usda.gov/cool. Larry Dreiling can be reached by phone at 785-628-1117 or by e-mail at ldreiling@aol.com. 10/6/08 Date: 10/2/08 Advertisement
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