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Interim Final Rule Amends COOL Labeling

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety & Inspection Service (FSIS) issued an interim final rule Aug. 28 amending its regulations to provide that, to receive FSIS approval, any label for a meat or poultry product that is a covered commodity, as defined by the Agricultural Marketing Service's (AMS) interim final rule on country-of-origin labeling (COOL), must comply with that interim final rule, which was issued Aug. 1.

FSIS is also amending its regulations to provide that the addition of a COOL statement on labels for meat and poultry product covered commodities that are to be sold by retailers and that comply with the AMS interim final rule will be generically approved. Currently, federal meat and poultry product inspection regulations require COOL statements on the labels of immediate containers for imported products. The FSIS interim final rule will be effective Sept. 30.

Comments must be received by Sept. 29 and can be made through the Federal eRulemaking Portal at www.regulations.gov. All comments must identify FSIS and docket number FSIS-2008-0027.

Source: Feedstuffs