Agriculture Dept. Revises Poultry Labels : Regulations: Partly frozen meat will fall under ‘hard-chilled’ category. Chicken must not be stored below 26 degrees if it is to be designated as fresh.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Thursday issued new labeling requirements for poultry, creating a “hard-chilled” designation to distinguish partly frozen fowl from meat labeled as either fresh or frozen.

Beginning Aug. 25, 1996, poultry can be designated as fresh only if it has never been stored below 26 degrees, the temperature at which chicken starts to freeze. Under current regulations, the cutoff is zero degrees, the point at which poultry is frozen solid.

The requirements are a victory for California producers, who have complained that consumers are paying premium prices for “fresh” chicken that actually was produced on the East Coast and shipped across country partly frozen.

In an interview, Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman said that the new category will ensure that labels “reasonably reflect what the product actually is.” He called the new rules a “middle-ground” approach to addressing the concerns of rival poultry producers.

A group of 19 senators from states with large poultry-producing constituencies, led by Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.), had argued in favor of the existing rules in a letter sent to the department in April. But Glickman would not speculate on whether Congress would attempt to kill the new rules through legislation.

The National Broiler Council, which represents 95% of all poultry producers, denounced the requirements as “unnecessary and misleading,” arguing that it is difficult to link the freshness of a product with a specific temperature.

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But the trade group said that it will not fight the new rules and “will act in full compliance” with USDA regulations affecting the industry.

Consumer groups generally were supportive of the move.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said that the rule-making effectively ends the “chicken wars” between East and West Coast producers. She vowed to fight any congressional effort to circumvent the new rules.

The dispute over poultry labeling has created deep divisions within the industry. Last year, in an effort to illustrate their claim that existing classifications are misleading, California producers sponsored an event at which “fresh” chickens were used as bowling balls.

Glickman said he does not think the new rules will have a significant financial impact on consumers by creating a price differential between hard-chilled and fresh poultry.

“It will probably help consumers, in terms of giving them additional choices in what to buy,” he said. “It might even help their pocketbooks.”

In any case, Glickman said, the fundamental issue is truth in labeling. “I view this as an accurate labeling type issue. . . . If something is labeled as fresh, I think it ought not to have been previously frozen. It’s as simple as that.”

In a separate development, the National Assn. of State Departments of Agriculture released proposed legislation Thursday that would overhaul the meat and poultry inspection system. The measure, if adopted, would mandate “science-based” inspection of all animals whose flesh is used for food, covering all aspects of food production.