Ground Meat Labels to Carry Health Instructions

Barring last-minute court intervention, all packages of raw ground meat (beef, pork, lamb, turkey, chicken) must carry safe handling instructions beginning tomorrow.

The labeling, required by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, has faced strong legal opposition from three food industry trade groups who have called the new federal law “arbitrary and capricious.”

But Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy stated in Washington, “This is a long-overdue action by USDA to provide consumers with information that will help them and their families stay safe (from food poisoning).”

Whole cuts of raw meat and poultry--steaks, chops, roasts, broilers--must be sold adjacent to leaflets providing consumers the same kind of cooking and handling information as on the ground varieties. Labels will be required on these products’ packaging by April 15.

The regulation, which was printed in Tuesday’s Federal Register, is a revision of USDA’s earlier proposal, which would have applied simultaneously to all raw or partially cooked meats and poultry, whether ground or not, by tomorrow. The concession was made to allow processors and grocers additional time to print sufficient numbers of labels in order to make the instructions universal in the nation’s meat counters and in restaurant kitchens.

The label requirements became a priority for USDA officials in the aftermath of a major contamination incident on the Pacific Coast in January that took four lives and caused at least 500 illnesses. Contaminated ground beef that was subsequently undercooked was the source of the E. coli 0157:H7 outbreak.

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The handling label will read, in part: “This product was prepared from (USDA) inspected and passed meat and/or poultry. Some food products may contain bacteria that could cause illness if the product is mishandled or cooked improperly. . . . Cook thoroughly.” Only the leaflets distributed at meat counters will carry recommended cooking temperatures. A slightly different set of instructions will be required on packages of ground meat sold to restaurants and other industrial food service establishments such as schools or hospitals.

Two major meat industry trade associations have endorsed the USDA’s labeling plans. The Washington-based American Meat Institute recently released a statement reaffirming its support for the safe handling and cooking instructions.

“The vast majority of food-borne illness is preventable through simple storage, hygiene and cooking practices,” said J. Patrick Boyle, AMI president. “These simple steps should be communicated to consumers and food handlers through every appropriate channel--including brochures, product labels and other available means.”

The Western States Meat Assn. in Oakland also distributed a statement urging its members to support the USDA action.

“Move aggressively ahead with the labeling as proposed,” the group’s newsletter advised. “It’s easy to question the fine print, to suggest changes, and to procrastinate. . . . We urge all members to take the proactive route and get the label on . . . products.”

Nevertheless, serious opposition to the USDA plan has surfaced from three trade groups representing food wholesalers and grocers. The National Grocers Assn., the National-American Wholesale Grocers Assn. and the Texas Food Industry Assn. challenged USDA’s labeling requirement in a lawsuit filed last month in Federal District Court in Austin, Tex. Last week, a hearing was held on the groups’ request for a temporary restraining order against USDA and a decision in the case is imminent.

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Specifically, the groups dispute the government’s claim of a food safety emergency, which enables USDA to reduce the time typically allowed for public comment on such a proposal.

“The E. coli outbreak was in January and maybe they had a moral obligation to do something then. But they waited eight months to come up with a proposal and then they went about it hastily and illegally,” said Bruce A. Gates, government relations vice president for National-American Wholesale Grocers. “Our point here is that we would like USDA to issue regulations legally; by the book; by the Administrative Procedures Act, which was designed to protect us from know-it-all bureaucrats.”

Gates and his colleagues, while refusing to say whether they are in favor of some kind of cooking instructions on raw meat, said that “significant improvements can be made to strengthen and improve this particular regulation.”

He claims there was insufficient time allowed for his organization and others to comment on the nuances of the labeling law.

“The point is: Yes, something needs to be done and we want to do something,” Gates said. “But this rule is not it.”

Agriculture Secretary Espy addressed the lawsuit filed against USDA last week, saying such litigation will help no one.

“People are dying,” he said, “in what, in many cases, can be prevented with proper information.”