Country of origin labeling for food?

30th September 2008

Country of origin labeling for food?

After years in the making, the country of origin labeling requirement will go into effect Sept. 30. Retailers will then have six months to make sure they understand the regulations and come into compliance. The act requires most food retailers to disclose where many types of meat, produce and other food products are coming from so that consumers can know whether their food was imported or not.

The Food Marketing Institute insists that mandatory labeling would be costly and argues for a voluntary system instead. The USDA estimates that record-keeping and maintenance will cost retailers about $247 million per year. Consumer and environmental groups counter that consumers should be able to find out where their food comes from, especially in light of recent food safety scares and environmental concerns about shipping food from afar. What do you think? Should food retailers be required to print the country of origin on their products?

	Do you support ‘country of origin labeling’?
	Yes — I want to know where my food comes from
	No, it doesn’t matter and will drive up food costs
	I really don’t care

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 at 10:02 am and is filed under Health, Nutrition & Fitness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

1 On September 30th, 2008, wiscck said:

Yes! I know this only refers to the US, but I live in Hong Kong and a lot of our food comes from China. What with the recent melamine contamination in all dairy products and now soy products, too, I’ve opted to give up all dairy products because I can’t figure out what comes from where. And even if a product was made in Indonesia, who knows if they didn’t get the dairy (or other ingredients) from China?

You’d be surprised just how much food China ships out, to many countries, including the US.

posted on September 30th, 2008 at 11:30 am

2 On September 30th, 2008, Nan said:

Given how many years the food industry has had to get ready for this and also given that quite a few food products already include country of origin labels, I feel no sympathy for the holdouts whatsoever. And I do want to know where my food is coming from for both personal safety (how likely is it to be contaminated with either chemicals or bacteria?) and more general environmental (how big is the carbon footprint, how many thousands of miles is it being transported?)reasons.

posted on September 30th, 2008 at 12:02 pm

3 On September 30th, 2008, Eucritta said:

I’m very much in favor, but all this is, is a baby step in the right direction: it only applies to fresh or frozen produce, meats, and dairy, *not* processed or prepared foods, and there are loopholes for some prepared produce: if, say, chopped melon was chopped in the US and contains some from the US and some from elsewhere, it can be labelled as originating in the US.

Especially disappointing, and all the more in light of recent events, is that it doesn’t apply to baby or pet foods. But really, when it comes to anything in a can or box or jar, we’re still being kept in the dark.

posted on September 30th, 2008 at 1:36 pm

4 On September 30th, 2008, Froth said:

I think the UK may already have something like this – I often see country-of-origin on food, even in the market. I like knowing where things come from. It makes it much easier to buy, if not local food, then at least British.

posted on September 30th, 2008 at 2:43 pm

5 On September 30th, 2008, sannaina said:

Froth – It’s the same in the Netherlands and in Germany. I am not sure, but isn’t it an EU thing? Anyways, I was surprised to hear that the US doesn’t have it yet.

posted on September 30th, 2008 at 3:50 pm

6 On September 30th, 2008, The Bald Soprano said:

Produce and meat is already marked with country of origin here (Germany), too. I’m not sure about dairy, but local dairy is a BIG thing in this region, and certain brands make a big deal about being made from milk from certain regions of Germany.

posted on September 30th, 2008 at 3:53 pm

7 On September 30th, 2008, sannaina said:

The Bald Soprano – I am actually not sure if all dairy in Germany is marked, but even “no-name” brands often include information where the milk came from in their date stamps (I don’t know if it is all of them, though). Also, eggs are are marked with their coutry of origin. I wouldn’t know about meat, since I am vegetarian, though…

posted on September 30th, 2008 at 5:32 pm

8 On September 30th, 2008, nuckingfutz said:

Like Froth up there, I OFTEN see country of origin clearly defined on food here in the UK. I don’t know if it’s done by law, but it certainly seems to be common practice.

I don’t think it could be anything but a good thing. Even for those not in a position to buy locally-produced-only foods, at least they know where their food comes from.

posted on September 30th, 2008 at 5:42 pm

9 On September 30th, 2008, Bri said:

We have this in Australia and have had for years. I think it is very important.

posted on September 30th, 2008 at 9:48 pm

10 On September 30th, 2008, Rachel said:

For the international folks here… have you found that COOL have increased food prices at all?

posted on September 30th, 2008 at 11:25 pm

11 On October 1st, 2008, Taylor said:

I am interested not for any kind of health reasons but more to regulate my own carbon footprint and buy foods closer to home.

posted on October 1st, 2008 at 11:20 am

12 On October 1st, 2008, Rosa said:

I’m all for it – our coop always labels stuff by country or state of origin (does organic already have to include country of origin labeling?).

I think I will probably buy more at the regular grocery store because of this – unless I know for sure something is local (like cider, which has the distributor’s name/address on it), I generally only buy dry goods and cheap cheese at the grocery store. So if they start labeling more produce as from the USA or, better yet, by state, I’ll buy more of it.

posted on October 1st, 2008 at 12:54 pm