Thread: Five Fatal Flaws:U.S. "Country of Origin" Labels

"Five Flaws in the New U.S. 'Country of Origin' Food Labeling"
written by Alex Felsinger
Published September 14, 2008
Red Green and Blue"


"On September 30th, SIX YEARS after Congress originally passed the law, the United States will implement a Country of Origin labeling program for supermarket foods. But DUE TO INDUSTRY PRESSURE, some of the most important and potentially dangerous products are exempt from being labeled."

"ONLY 1.3% OF IMPORTED FOOD IS INSPECTED BY THE FDA, and of that small faction, many hazardous items are confiscated. The average American consumes an estimated 260 pounds of imported food each year, which is roughly 13% of their diet. Food safety will always be a concern. Among consumers, with the knowledge of where their food comes from will not only help with everyday shopping, but also help in the case of a recall of a food from a specific region (like jalapenos from Mexico). While the new law has some benefits, many recent examples of food contaminiation and safety concerns show that it won't do enough."

"1. THE NEW LAW DOES NOT APPLY TO PET FOOD. In 2007, contaminated gluten and rice protein from China was used to make pet food, resulting in the death of thousands of dogs and cats across America. The food was also used to feed pigs and chickens, and farmed fish which entered the human food supply, but no illnesses were reported. The same pet food would be exempt from the new labeling because only the ingredients were imported, not the final product. MIXTURES DO NOT APPLY UNDER THE LAW - not even fruit salad."

"2. THE LAW DOES NOT APPLY TO DRIED FOODS OR PROCESSED FOODS OF ANY KIND. Any processed food can avoid the label if it was shipped from a foreign country and then packaged in the United States. China was caught exporting dried apples preserved in a cancer-causing substance in 2007 and non-eviscerated fish in 2008. Indian imports of dried spices have been confiscated for salmonella contamination, and dried chili and other items from Mexico have been rejected as 'filthy'."

"3. THE LAW DOES NOT APPLY TO DRUGS. The FDA has dismissed requests to label pharmaceutical drugs with their Country of Origin, even after 19 people died from a tainted batch of the blood-thining drug heparin from China."

"4. THE LAW DOES NOT APPLY TO EVERYONE. Only stores which purchased over $230,000 of fresh produce in the previous year will be required to label their red meat, poultry, produce, and fish. This exempts butcher shops and fish markets from the law if they do not have a produce section."

"5. THE LAW DOES NOT ALWAYS MANDATE ACCURACY. If a meat packer orders beef from five different countries within the same time period, the BUSINESS IS NOT REQUIRED TO KEEP TRACK OF WHICH MEAT CAME FROM WHICH COUNTRY. A label could read, 'Product of the United States, Mexico, Australia, Canada, or China." *

(Copied from http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/09/14/ )

Concerns about the new U.S. "Country of Origin Label" program can be expressed to your elected representatives and U.S. government officials at:

U.S. House of Representatives
www.house.gov/
U.S. Senate
www.senate.gov/

United States Department of Agriculture
www.usda.gov/
U.S. Food and Drug Administration
http://www.fda.gov/


*NPR article about the 2007 sale of U.S. Swift and Co. meatpackers to a Brazillian company five months after a major immigration raid on a half dozen Swift plants across the nation:

"Sale of Swift & Co. raises questions....
by Mark Steil, Minnesota Public Radio
May 29, 2007

"JBS-Friboi', the largest beef processer in Latin America, bought the Swift meatpacking business from a Dallas investment group known as HM Capital Partners."

"Swift...has beef and pork processing plants in five other (than Minn.) states and an operation in Australia."

"Based in Sao Paulo, JBS-Friboi has 23 plants in Brazil and six in Argentina."
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/displa ... swiftsale/

Thanks, TEX! The COOL act is a joke since it does not apply to processed foods, which are produced by factories relying on brokers trying to find the cheapest price for an ingredient anywhere in the world. Producers get their shipments, save money, blend that ingredient with a plethora of other stuff from who knows where, and don't have to admit that they just threw wheat gluten from China into a bin with the same product from Mexico or India.
As a former owner of a restaurant, I had to order veggies from a major distributor in town, and in those days I didn't really worry about COOL. I also had no idea that if I ordered a case of tomatoes, they would repack the various shipments they had gotten from who knows where.
Now I am worried about everything concerning food I buy in the grocery.

What a joke !

Texas2step

Send this onto Lou via e-mail.

He loves the FDA and has some choice adjectives for this bunch.

If he hasn't reported on these particular specifics..he will.

It may not get "fixed"...but it will get attention.