Country-of-origin labels at long last (sort of)
While the U.S. economy is falling into the tank, it helps to think of cheerier topics. This very day, after years of delay, mandatory country-of-origin labeling (M-COOL) supposedly goes into effect. The “supposedly” is because M-COOL still faces so much opposition. If the experience with fish COOL is any indication, we will see lots of passive ignoring of the rules.
The legislation requires grocery stores to say where a motley collection of foods – beef, pork, lamb, chicken, fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables, macadamia nuts, pecans, peanuts, and ginseng – were raised or grown. This is great but you can drive a truck through the loopholes. Excluded are food service, processed foods, Internet sales, and butcher shop sales. And then there’s the 6-month grace period. Here again is Consumer Reports’ guide to the exceptions.
If you don’t see COOL on products that are supposed to have such labels, ask why they aren’t there. Tell the store managers you want to know where your food comes from and remind them that they are required by law to tell you.
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Comments
COOL on processed foods is what we really need, however, in order to know, for example, what is the country of origin of the milk powder in my box of cocoa mix or the soy powder in the baby formula or the wheat gluten in the loaf of bread. Yes, it will take a bit more time to set up the printing on the label. But it would offer consumers another safety option to consider at a time when all of these ingredients have been found at some point to have been adulterated from certain locations.
Yes, funny how almost all of the most worrisome foods are exempted from COOL. Wait – not funny.
(I score triple bonus points for using the word worrisome for the first time in my life.)
Why doesn’t walmart have country of origin on all of the foods they sell? Their “great value” foods don’t have a country of origin. Only ” Distributed by walmart, Benton ark.”.