Voluntary Label Gets Branded

Label herd: USDA’s Product of USA label keeps adding names to the chute. Six more meat and poultry companies joined the voluntary program, giving the origin-labeling fight a fresh news peg and a little more sizzle in the meat case.

Fine print: Under the updated rule, companies can use the claim only when animals are born, raised, slaughtered and processed in the United States. That closes the old loophole where imported meat could pick up a U.S. label after processing here. Very patriotic. Very confusing.

Still mooing: The mandatory Country of Origin Labeling crowd is not satisfied with a cleaner voluntary option. The American Beef Labeling Act would reinstate mandatory COOL for beef, while instructing U.S. trade officials to find a World Trade Organization-compliant path. That second clause is doing a lot of work after the last labeling fight ran into trade trouble.

Why it matters: Voluntary labels help companies that want to make a stronger claim and consumers who actually read the package before tossing steaks in the cart. Mandatory COOL would make origin disclosure the baseline, not a branding choice. Ranchers pushing for it argue the label should not depend on packers opting in. The new voluntary rule cleaned up the ink. It did not settle the argument.