The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) recently announced an update to its guidelines for label approval that focuses on clarifying the requirements for voluntary U.S.-origin label claims on FSIS-regulated products. The agency summarized the revisions to the recently updated label approval guidelines in a regulatory notice.
The more significant revisions include clarifying that:
- State endorsement program logos are not exempt from the final rule; however, state endorsement program logos that do not include geographic depictions of the state may be used if the establishment maintains supporting documentation for use of the logo.
- Geographic depictions of the United States or a U.S. State or territory may be used on the labels of products without a qualifying statement only if the FSIS-regulated product was derived from an animal born, raised, slaughtered, and processed in the United States, or a U.S. State or territory. If the product does not meet these requirements, the depiction must be accompanied by a qualifying statement.
- Voluntary multi-country origin claims that include the United States and a foreign country are allowed on products under specified conditions.
- Multi-ingredient products made with edible natural casings that are processed outside the United States are eligible for use of the voluntary U.S.-origin label claims.
- Although FSIS expected FDA-regulated “ingredients” to be of U.S. origin, “ingredients” do not include sub-ingredients for the purposes of determining domestic origins.
- U.S.-origin label claims that do not provide meaningful information about preparation and processing steps will not be approved, even if the claim is combined with a claim that does provide meaningful preparation and processing information.
USDA last updated its label approval guidelines in March 2024 to reflect changes made pursuant to the final rule for voluntary U.S.-origin label claims. Importantly, the updates to the labeling guidelines discussed in this memorandum do not alter the contents of the final rule. Rather, the revised guidelines further clarify how companies can comply with voluntary U.S.-origin label claim requirements. Notably, the policy articulated through this updated compliance guideline is not fully the same as the Federal Trade Commission’s policy for Made in the USA claims.
The FSIS Guidelines for Label Approval can be found by clicking here.
