FSIS Issues Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Use of the Voluntary Claim “Natural” in the Labeling of Meat and Poultry Products
September 15, 2009On September 11, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced that it will solicit further public comment as the qgency seeks to define the conditions under which it would permit the voluntary claim “natural” to be used in the labeling of meat and poultry products. The agency made the announcement through the publication of an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR).
The agency is seeking comments to clarify and resolve issues surrounding the “natural” claim, including how best to coordinate the regulation of “natural” claims with the Agricultural Marketing Service’s (AMS) voluntary “naturally raised” marketing claim standard.
The current FSIS policy states that the term “natural” may be used in the labeling of meat and poultry products provided that the product does not contain any artificial flavor or flavoring, coloring ingredients, chemical preservative, or any other artificial or synthetic ingredient and that the product is not more than minimally processed.
In October 2006, FSIS received a petition requesting that the agency initiate rulemaking to establish a codified definition for the voluntary claim “natural” and to delineate the conditions under which the claim can be used on the labels of meat and poultry products. In December 2006, FSIS held a public meeting and requested comments on “natural” claims.
FSIS received a high volume of comments that expressed divergent views on the use of the claim “natural” following the December 2006 public meeting, so it is publishing an ANPR to solicit more focused comments on the issue. The ANPR requests comments on a number of issues related to the use of “natural” claims in the labeling of meat and poultry products.
For detailed description of these issues, please refer to the ANPR, which is posted on the FSIS Web site. Comments on the ANPR must be received by November 13, 2009. For information on sending comments, see the notice published in the Federal Register.
For further information contact: Rosalyn Murphy-Jenkins, Senior Technical Advisor, Labeling and Program Delivery Division, Office of Policy and Program Development, USDA, FSIS, 5601 Sunnyside Avenue, Block A, 2nd Wing, 2nd Floor Room 2-2124, Beltsville, MD 20705; Phone: (301) 504-0868 or by e-mail: Rosalyn.Murphy-Jenkins@fsis.usda.gov.
