
Last week the new COOL (country of origin label) labeling went into effect. The legislation was actually created years ago but faced stiff resistance from the food industry. However, the recent salmonella outbreak in the US and the Listeria outbreak in Canada have made it impossible to hold it back anymore, and the labels have to be implemented within six months.
Some lawmakers and consumer groups are worried about the loopholes, though. According to Bloomberg.com, loopholes in the legislation allow foods of mixed origin to be exempt. That includes things like mixed vegetables, Spam, processed meats, and mixed nuts.
Some lawmakers are looking into making changes to close the loopholes, but of course the industrial food lobby's are against that. They're worried about how much all of the new labeling is going to cost. I understand that, but are their up front costs worth risking the health of consumers?
[Via Coldmud]

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10-06-2008 @1:49PM NYCubsFan said... At best you will get nothing definitive along the lines of: May contain product of U.S., Canada, Mexico, Ecuador, ...
They have to start somewhere, and I'm guessing your average Spam consumer doesn't have this at the top of their list of concerns.
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10-07-2008 @5:04PM Michael Schmitt said... Here's the problem associated with this legislation: suppliers change, and the supplier's suppliers change. This means country of origin labeling will have to change everytime there is a change in the suppliers upstream from a product. Labels cost $10k-$30 per label to change on products (at least here where I work), and maintaining updated databases take a lot of resources. Please expect the cost of your processed food to go up ever so slightly because of this.
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