The Biden administration has announced a new U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) rule it says will promote inclusive competition and market integrity in the livestock, meat and poultry markets. At a September 26 meeting of the White House Competition Council, President Joe Biden announced the proposed Inclusive Competition and Market Integrity rules under the Packers and Stockyards (P&S) Act “to provide for clearer, more effective standards to govern the modern marketplace.” The proposed rule would revise existing regulations under the P&S Act by prohibiting certain prejudices and disadvantages against covered producers in the livestock, meat and poultry markets and would prohibit retaliatory practices that interfere with lawful communications, assertion of rights and participation in associations, among other protected activities. “Highly concentrated local markets in livestock and poultry have increasingly left farmers, ranchers, growers and producers vulnerable to a range of practices that unjustly exclude them from economic opportunities and undermine…
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The U.S. Department of Agriculture has released its final rule amending its labeling provisions requiring dual labeling for meat or poultry products, which will take effect Oct. 17, 2022. The proposed rule sought to amend the Food Safety and Inspection Service’s (FSIS) labeling regulations to remove provisions that require packages of meat or poultry products that contain at least one pound or pint, but less than four pounds or one gallon, to express the net weight or net content in two different units of measurement on the product label. FSIS revisited the regulations in response to a petition submitted by a small meat processing establishment. After conducting a review of the regulatory provisions and comments on the proposed rule, FSIS determined the provisions were unnecessary. The final rule adopts the requirements of the proposed rule, with some non-substantive changes to the proposed regulatory language. Under the final rule, all FSIS…
A consumer has filed a putative class action alleging Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen Inc. misled her into believing that the restaurant's chicken tenders were composed of chicken tenderloins. Sanders v. Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen Inc., No. 22-4477 (E.D.N.Y., filed July 29, 2022). "Traditionally, chicken tenders are made from chicken tenderloins," the complaint asserts. "Chicken tenderloins are the small strips of meat that are loosely attached to the underside of each breast, along the breastbone. As a result, chicken tenderloins are more tender than regular chicken breast, and hence, the name chicken tender. Chicken tenderloins are also juicier, making them more desirable for consumption. They are significantly smaller than the remainder of the chicken breast, also making them more expensive than the rest of the chicken breast." The chicken tenders at Popeyes, the plaintiff argues, are instead made from the remainder of the chicken breast. The plaintiff asserts that Popeyes' competitors are accurate in their…
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is accepting comments on proposed changes to organic standards for livestock and poultry production. Issues addressed in the proposed changes include livestock health care practices, living conditions, transport and slaughter. The many proposed changes include a limit on the types of physical alterations permissible in organic livestock production, such as needle teeth clipping and tail docking in pigs, and the establishment of a distinction between requirements for mammalian living conditions and avian living conditions based on different physiological needs. Comments will be accepted until October 11, 2022.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest has joined three other advocacy groups and four poultry producers to urge the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to update poultry food safety standards. "While progress on reducing foodborne illness has been at a standstill, scientific knowledge of Salmonella has greatly increased and recognized best practices for Campylobacter and other pathogens have advanced. Science tells us that current performance standards do not effectively target the particular types of Salmonella and the levels of bacteria that pose the greatest risks of illness, and the overall regulatory framework does not adequately harness modern tools for preventing and verifying control of the bacteria that are making people sick," the letter to Secretary Tom Vilsack states. "In order to finally make public health progress on Salmonella and Campylobacter illnesses and meet the Healthy People 2030 targets, significant change in the [Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS)]…
U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Reps. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) and Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) have reintroduced the Safe Line Speeds During COVID-19 Act "to protect worker, consumer, and animal safety by suspending all current and future [U.S. Department of Agriculture] waivers and regulations that allow companies to increase production line speeds at meatpacking plants during the COVID-19 pandemic," according to a press release. The act would suspend all speed waivers for the duration of the COVID-19 public health emergency declaration as well as suspending implementation of the New Swine Slaughter Inspection System. “The ongoing COVID-19 outbreaks at meat plants over the last year have raised serious questions about the safety conditions inside these plants," DeLauro is quoted as saying. "Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, these workers experienced injuries at a higher rate than comparable occupations. And now, faster line speeds make it impossible for workers to practice social distancing and…
A California appeals court has declined to revive a lawsuit alleging that packaging for Foster Poultry Farms Inc. products misleads consumers by featuring a certification that the animals are treated humanely. Leining v. Foster Poultry Farms Inc., No. B291600 (Cal. App. Ct., 2nd Dist., entered February 23, 2021). The plaintiff had alleged that she believed the logo to indicate that the animals were treated humanely according to a reasonable consumer's standard rather than according to the industry's standards; the trial court granted Foster Farms summary judgment, finding that the American Humane Association's certification program was "independent, reasonable, and involved some level of expertise." The appeals court found that the plaintiff's causes of action were preempted by the Poultry Products Inspection Act (PPIA) because the labels were preapproved by the Food Safety and Inspection Service. If the plaintiff "were to prevail on her tort claims that the labels were nonetheless misleading,…
President Biden has withdrawn an executive order that would have allowed 25% faster processing speeds on poultry lines in meatpacking plants. The policy change would have allowed plants to process 175 slaughtered birds per minute, up from 140, in accordance with a proposal by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service. Criticism of the proposal came from advocacy groups that argued the faster speeds with endanger workers, especially after a study purportedly showed that plants with waivers allowing the faster speeds had higher COVID-19 transmission rates.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has announced that it will amend regulations governing the National Poultry Improvement Plan (NPIP). The amendments "establish a U.S. Newcastle Disease Clean program within the NPIP, create an NPIP subpart specific to game birds, revise testing requirements, and clarify existing provisions of the regulations," according to the announcement. The agency also amends "the regulations concerning the payment of indemnity and compensation for low pathogenic avian influenza to reflect current policy and operational practices, and allowing NPIP voting delegates to represent multiple States during the Biennial Conferences." The changes take effect November 4, 2020.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has announced the availability of updated guidance on importing meat, poultry and eggs into the United States. According to the announcement, "FSIS revised and reorganized a section on industry supply chain best practices; clarified approaches to levels of reinspection; added information about generic labeling approvals, food defense, slaughter dates on import certification, and barcoding; and made minor editorial changes to improve the guidance's clarity." The announcement also directly responds to several comments received on the 2017 version of the guidance.
