New COOL Legislation Extends Origin Labeling Laws to Dairy Products
Three U.S. Senators have introduced a bill (S. 1783) that would extend mandatory country-of-origin (COOL) labeling to dairy products. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s current COOL law took effect in 2008 and requires origin labeling on meats, nuts and raw produce, but not dairy products or processed foods. The Dairy COOL Act of 2009 extends the current law to include milk, cheese, yogurt, ice cream, and butter, but retains the exemption for processed foods.
“With the discovery last year of widespread use of melamine in Chinese dairy products, consumers deserve to know whether the milk used to produce the dairy products they buy meets the high safety standards used in the U.S.,” said Senator Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.), who co-sponsored the legislation with colleagues Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Al Franken (D-Minn.). Franken said the bill helps address the
issue of low milk prices by helping “American dairy farmers stand out in a crowded marketplace.”
The International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) reportedly opposes the bill, fearing that it would cause U.S. manufacturers to use more non-dairy ingredients in their products. “This legislation is misguided, because it would do nothing to help America’s dairy farmers,” an IDFA spokesman said. See U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown Press Release, October 14, 2009; FoodNavigator-USA.com, October 20, 2009.
