With the Biden administration eyeing a rewrite of the “Product of the USA” label, Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) introduced the Bona Fide Beef Branding Act of 2022 that would direct USDA to eliminate the current Product of USA meat label. Instead, the new bill would create three new voluntary labels to address consumer confusion in the marketplace and help beef producers.
Marshall’s bill would allow labels stating, “Processed in USA,” applying to meat that would undergo substantial transformation in a U.S. facility. The legislation would also create a label stating, “Raised and Processed in USA,” covering a live animal raised in the U.S. for not less than 100 days before processed in a U.S. facility. The third label, “Born, Raised and Processed in USA,” means the live animal was born and raised and processed in the United States. Critics of the “Product of the USA” label say a meat product that comes from other countries can qualify for the label if it is processed in the country.
Key to any revisions to the voluntary Product of USA label would be what kind of restrictions are imposed as it could impact imports of cattle and/or hogs from Canada, many of which are imported into the U.S. at a young age and fed in the U.S. and processed at U.S. meat facilities.
