Posted January 14, 2016
The Agricultural
Marketing Service (AMS) of the USDA provides the livestock and meat industries
with an option to voluntarily have marketing claims covered by AMS standards
verified by the USDA, and to identify such claims as “USDA Certified”.
AMS established standards for grass (forage) fed livestock marketing claims in
2007 and for naturally raised marketing claims in 2009.
On January 11, AMS
announced that the “grass fed” and “naturally raised” marketing claims do not
fit within the agency’s statutory authority. AMS published a notice in
the Federal Register to withdraw the United States Standards for Livestock and
Meat Marketing Claims, effective Jan. 12, 2016. The organization further
explained that persons seeking to use these USDA-verified claims on product
labels must receive pre-approval from the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection
Service (FSIS) or meet FDA labeling requirements. AMS concluded that
because it does not have express Congressional authority to define these
claims, and because there is no guarantee that an USDA-verified
production/marketing claim will be approved by FSIS or permitted by FDA, the
standards for marketing claims “do not facilitate the marketing of agricultural
products in a manner that is useful to stakeholders or consumers.”
Current users of
the USDA Grass (Forage) Fed Marketing Claim Standard must identify a new
Grass-fed Standard their company intends to meet by February 11, 2016 and must
implement the new standard by April 11, 2016. This may be accomplished by (1)
converting the USDA Grass (Forage) Fed Marketing Claim Standard into their
private grass-fed standard, (2) using another recognized grass-fed standard, or
(3) developing a new grass-fed standard. There are no current users of
the USDA Naturally Raised Marketing Claim Standard. Although AMS has
identified a legitimate issue – lack of coordination between partner agencies –
AMS’ solution has drawn criticism from those who say the policy will create
non-uniform labels and erode consumer trust in “grass fed” claims.
More information
and notice of the withdrawal may be viewed
here.
