Posted January 8, 2014
The Office of Management Bureau (OMB) did not meet the deadline to advance the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) final rule for labeling mechanically tenderized beef, according to a Politico article available here. Brownfield Ag News also published an article available here, Food Safety News here, and Agri-Pulse here.
Because the deadline was not met for 2014, USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) cannot require the labels before 2018.
The labeling measure was originally proposed in June 2013 due to customer concerns that the meat is not properly cooked to eliminate pathogens. The meat is tenderized by using knives and needles to drive bacteria inside the product, according to Agri-Pulse.
The meat industry strongly opposed the labeling requirement, but USDA officials did not send the final rule for review until Nov. 21, and the regulation remains pending at OMB. Under FSIS labeling regulations, if the rule was cleared by OMB and approved by USDA by Dec. 31, it could have taken effect in 2016.
“It’s really a very unnecessary delay,” said Chris Waldrop, director of the Consumer Federation of America’s Food Policy Institute. “It means consumers remain at risk because they don’t have the information they need.”
On Dec. 31, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) urged the Obama administration to rule on the case before midnight, according to Food Safety News.
“These products are not currently adequately labeled so consumers do not know that they are different, present different risks, and require different preparation than whole cuts of beef,” she said. “This is not a small problem: a 2008 USDA study indicated that about 50 million pounds of mechanically tenderized beef products are sold every month.”
The OMB has declined to comment and noted that the agency has at least 90 days to review a rule, according to Agri-Pulse.
Costco voluntarily began labeling its tenderized beef products.
For more information on food safety, please visit the National Agricultural Law Center’s website here.
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