America is moving one more step closer to awareness of where its food comes from.
The US Department of Agriculture has mandated that all produce as well as meat, fish, and poultry sold in US retail stores will be required to have country of origin labels (COOL) beginning next Tuesday, Sept. 30.
Aside from knowing more about your food's origins, the COOL new system (pun intended) could be helpful in situations such as this year's widespread salmonella outbreak. Since the outbreak was traced to Mexico, if you purchased jalapeno or serrano peppers from, say, California, you could be assured that your produce wasn't from the contaminated source.
For years, COOL has been applied to canned or boxed foods packaged overseas, but this will be the first time the rule is required for fresh foods. There are exceptions, however: meat and fish sold in small butcheries or fish markets; salad bars or packaged mixed fruit and vegetable salads; bacon, ham, and smoked salmon; frozen vegetables; domestically canned vegetables; cooked shrimp; and roasted peanuts. What do you think of this move? Are you glad to learn more about where your food comes from?
Matthew Williamson
This is great news!
1I'm so happy this is happening and so soon.
2My darling boyfriend is a butcher for Fred Meyer here in the Gem State - they've required COOL on their meat and fish for a very long time.
3I think we do pretty well in CA also - more is better in this case.
4i think that this is a great addition to labels and hopefully we'll be able to better manage any outbreaks when foods are recalled. this way perhaps the affect on manufacturers would be as wide spread. i also think that it's good for people to know where their food comes from - it's a way to manage buying local/national and understanding what countries really rely on producing and exporting certain foods.
5SWEET!
6My favorite grocery store already labels where all of its produce and meat comes from. I do my best to buy in-state whenever possible.
7LOVE IT! I can't wait for the coolness to start.
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