Last updated on August 30th, 2022 at 03:02 pm
The U.S. Court of Appeals upheld last week the mandatory country-of-origin labeling (COOL) ruling for meat and meat products that currently is in place. The decision denies a request for a preliminary injunction to block the implementation of the meat labeling rules. Mettler Toledo is offering a meat labeling webinar to help ensure retailers are compliant with regulations.
The decision supports an earlier appellate court ruling that determined that labeling was necessary for consumer protection.
The regulation, which went into effect in 2013, requires labels to show where the animals were born, raised and slaughtered. Meat packages now will have a label indicating, for example, that the animals were “Born, Raised and Slaughtered in Canada” or “Born and Raised in U.S., Slaughtered in Canada.”
The American Meat Institute (AMI) had sought a preliminary injunction to block the rule’s implementation, charging that the regulations violate the industry’s constitutional protection against compelled speech. ”AMI disparages the government’s interest as simply being that of satisfying consumers’ ‘idle curiosity,’” the court said in its decision. “Country-of-origin information has an historical pedigree that lifts it well above idle curiosity.”
Mettler Toledo’s webinar, “Key Issues in Labeling and Packaging,” moderated by Erik Lieberman of the Food Marketing Institute, discusses the laws and trends in nutrition labeling of single-ingredient meat and poultry, country-of-origin labeling, BPA regulations, enhanced meat product labeling, natural claims, front-of-pack labeling, extended producer responsibility and menu labeling.
Go here to register for the free, on-demand webinar.
