To: Seafood HACCP Community
Fr: Pamela Tom, Univ. of California, Sea Grant Extension Program
The long awaited USDA Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) interim final rule
was posted today on the USDA Web Site at: http://www.ams.usda.gov
The interim final rule for country of origin labeing for fish and
shellfish is 201 pages: http://www.ams.usda.gov/COOL/ls0304ifr.pdf
Examples of records wild fish, farm-raised fish, and farm-raised
shellfish) that may be useful for COOL verification purposes is on the web
at: http://www.ams.usda.gov/COOL/records.htm
============================================================================
Here's what today's USDA news release has to say about the interim final
rule:
"USDA Issues Regulatory Action on Mandatory Countyr of Origin
Labeling for Fish and Shellfish"
WASHINGTON, Sept. 30, 2004 The U.S. Department of Agriculture today issued
an interim final rule for the mandatory country of origin labeling (COOL)
program for fish and shellfish as required by the 2002 Farm Bill. The 2004
Appropriations Act delayed the applicability of mandatory COOL to the
other covered commodities, other than fish and shellfish, until Sept. 30,
2006.
Under the interim final rule, fish and shellfish covered commodities must
be labeled at retail to indicate their country of origin and method of
production (wild and/or farm raised). However, covered commodities are
excluded from mandatory COOL if they are an ingredient in a processed food
item.
Also, the definition of a processed food item has been revised from the
proposed rule. Items derived from a covered commodity that has undergone a
change (e.g., cooking, curing, smoking) or that has been combined with
other covered commodities or other substantive food components (e.g.,
breading, tomato sauce) are excluded from COOL labeling.
Food service establishments, such as restaurants, lunchrooms, cafeterias,
food stands, bars, lounges and similar enterprises are exempt from the
mandatory COOL requirements.
The interim final rule outlines the requirements for labeling covered
commodities. It reduces the recordkeeping retention requirements for
suppliers and centrally located retail records to one year and reduces the
time during which store level records must be made available to when
product is on hand.
The interim final rule will become effective six months from the date of
publication. This delay will permit existing inventories to clear through
the channels of commerce and allow industry members to conform their
operations to the new requirements. USDA plans to conduct outreach and
education activities during the first year to assist the industry in
achieving compliance with requirements of the rule.
The full text of the interim final rule will be published in a forthcoming
Federal Register. As an interim final rule, further comments are invited
and must be submitted within 90 days of publication. Copies of the interim
final rule and additional information can be found at:
http://www.ams.usda.gov/COOL.
Source: http://www.ams.usda.gov/news/172-04.htm
==========================================================================
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Sep 30 2004 - 14:08:48 PDT