Food & Agriculture

CFA Asks USDA to Protect Consumers from Empty Labeling Claims on Meat and Poultry

Consumer Federation of America (CFA) has submitted comments on the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food Safety Inspection Service’s updated guideline on documentation needed to support animal-raising claims on product labels. The guideline clarifies the requirements that producers making claims such as “grass fed” and “no antibiotics” must meet. However, consumers will have to continue to contend with inconsistencies in what claims like “humanely raised” and “sustainably farmed” mean. CFA recommends that FSIS develop more detailed definitions of common labeling claims, increase requirements for third-party certification of claims, and develop a publicly available online database of claims and supporting documentation, so that consumers can verify for themselves what a claim signifies.