US Appeals court uphold earlier ruling on country-of origin labels on meat products

In a decision today by the US Court of Appeals in Washington, North American meat producers, which include Tyson Foods Inc and Hormel Foods Corp will be forced to put country-of-origin labels on their meat products. Businessweek said that the decision of the Appeals court have overruled a potential ruling of any lower court that would choose to side with the meat producers, who earlier claimed that the labeling requirement violated their free speech rights or had exceed regulators' authority.

The news outlet said the regulations, which had taken effect in November after its adoption in May, see that producers specify which country or countries was the animal raised and slaughtered. Moreover, the regulations also prohibit meat producers to retail packages containing muscle cuts originating from varied countries under one label. The group, which is being led by the American Meat Institute, said that the regulations had rough-handled them into segregating its animals, which will trigger overhead costs.

US Circuit Judge Stephen Williams wrote on behalf of the three-judge panel, "The AMI's argument that the rule unlawfully ‘bans' commingling fails at a key first step -- the 2013 rule does not actually ban any element of the production process. The necessary changes to production are, to be sure, costly for the packers."

Unlike the US, Canada and Mexico were successful with their argument to the World Trade Organization that the labeling's imprecision would hurt their exports unfairly. On the other hand, Bloomberg said the US Food and Drugs Administration might have anticipated this challenge at home and resorted to making their wording more precise in compliance with the decision of the WTO.

Interim president James Hodges of AMI told the news agency that the group does not agree with the decision of the court and has been evaluating its next steps.

Tags

American Meat Institute, US meat labeling dispute, country-of-origin labels

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