Country of Origin Labeling (COOL)
Under the Tariff Act of 1930, frozen products are required to be labeled for foreign content. Subsequent to the 2002 Farm Bill, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued voluntary country of origin labeling (COOL) guidelines for meat (beef, pork and lamb), fish, shellfish, peanuts, and produce, including frozen produce. The Department of Agriculture’s action responded to legislation requiring such voluntary guidelines and also requiring USDA to issue mandatory country of origin labeling regulations by September 30, 2004. The legislation was enacted as part of that year’s Farm Bill (formally known as the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002). In 2003, Congress postponed implementation of mandatory COOL for everything but fish and seafood until 2008.
In 2004, USDA published an interim final rule for the mandatory country of origin labeling of fish and shellfish. Effective April 4, 2005, this rule required that certain covered seafood commodities be labeled at retail to indicate their country of origin and their method of production (wild and/or farm-raised). As required by law, certain processed seafood products, as well as seafood products served at food service establishments, remained exempt from these requirements.
In August 2007, USDA reopened the comment period for COOL for both the Interim Final Rule for fish and shellfish and the Proposed Rule for beef, lamb, pork, perishable agricultural commodities, and peanuts. With regard to the latter rule, USDA proposed to finalize it by applying the concepts used in the seafood rule to the remaining COOL commodities.
The 2002 Farm Bill and the 2008 Farm Bill amended the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946 to require that retailers inform consumers of the country of origin of all perishable agricultural commodities beginning September 30, 2008. Recently, USDA published regulations implementing the COOL requirement. At the same time, the marking requirements contained in Section 304 of the Tariff Act of 1930 continue to be enforced by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).