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T .?'.:-:* ~N E; 5 ‘ ' . ‘.~" .,‘frf:‘.a‘ ;%$e~=;e'av”~.;w%; R . \,u »u, ., ‘.3, '1,» Issue Brief WN[$V15;g3gS ‘L55 ST. ‘LOU [5, W304 «~=-.-.-O § CONGRESSIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS FOOD LAB ELI N 6 ISSUE BRIEF NUfiBER‘IB80055 AUTHOR: Knishacher, Sandra Science Policy Research Division Hartman, Sarah Science Policy Research Division Withnell, Elizabeth Environment and Natural Resources Policy Division THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CONGRESSIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE MAJOR IS SUBS SYSTEM DATE ORIGINATED gggjgggg DATE UPDATED Q§4Q§[§Q FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION CALL 287-5700 06 10 CRS- 1 IB80055 UPDATE-06/O6/80 l.5.§'l§-D§l".lE.lE.I.QE Congressional interest in providing the consumer with more complete food labeling information has now been supported by an Administration policy statement and legislative proposal to change the present system of food labeling. The regulation of food labeling is currently shared by three Federal agencies: the Department of Agriculture (USDA), for meat, poultry, and egg products; the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), for all other food products; and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which governs food advertising. Through the years, the original intent of food labeling has broadened from ensuring that the consumer was not defrauded, to promoting public health by giving consumers enough information to be able to avoid certain substances and to choose foods which will provide a more balanced diet. In addition, there have been immense changes in the manufacture, processing, and distribution of food products since passage of the 1938 Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, which established the foundations of food labeling regulation. Even so, regulatory mechanisms have changed only‘ slightly and in piecemeal fashion, leading to inconsistencies and inadequacies in the current system. Food labeling has been under Federal control since 1906, when the first food protection legislation, the Pure Food and Drugs Act, was passed by Congress. That law made the misbranding of foods, as well as its adulteration, a Federal offense. In 1938, the original Act was supplanted by the much broader Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. This Act required the label of any food to bear the "common or usual name" of the food, a statement of its ingredients, the net quality of theczontents, and the name and address of the manufacturer or distributor. In addition to ingredient labeling, a statement of nutrient content was required for "special dietary foods," which originally included all foods for which.nutritional claims were made. Ingredient labeling was always optional on foods for which standards of identity had been issued. These standards were written for certain common foods, with the intent to promote "honesty and fair dealing in the interest of consumers," as stated in the Act. The original standards resembled recipes, specifying the ingredients a product must contain and often the manufacturing procedures a manufacturer had to follow for the product to be labeled with a certain name. Any deviation from the specified process required that the name of the food be preceded by the word "imitation." Since these first regulations were promulgated, very little changed in »od labeling regulation until the 1969 White House Conference on Food, nutrition, and Health. Overall, recommendations made at the conference marked a change from thinking of food labeling as a means of protection against economic adulteration towards a recognition of the contribution labeling can have in helping consumers make informed decisions about foods that might lead to better health. Major recommendations from this conference CRS- 2 IB80055 UPDATE‘O6/06/80 included providing the consumer with more information about the nutritional characteristics of food, such as the fat and salt content of food. In addition, fuller ingredient labeling was proposed, including relaxation of food standards to permit greater labeling of nonmandatory ingredients, and percentage labeling of ingredients. In 1971, as a result of this conference, FDA began to pursue a new policy designed to provide greater information through food labeling. In particular, FDA promulgated new regulations for nutrient labeling of foods about which nutritional claims are made or which are fortified with any nutrient. The category of “special dietary foods" was now limited to foods which are truly special in nature, such.as hypoallergenic, dietetic or infant foods, and special regulations were promulgated accordingly. Conventional fortified foods, which previously had been considered "special dietary foods," were now covered by new nutrient labeling regulations. Ingredient labeling was also expanded by initiating a policy of related standards of identity, in which new standards specified fewer mandatory ingredients and permitted the addition of certain "safe and suitable" ingredients with disclosure of those optional ingredients on the label. In addition, as a way of avoiding standardizing, common or usual names were prescribed by regulation for nonstandardized foods. One example of this type of regulation is the practice of requiring the percentage of a characterizing ingredient to be specified as part of the name of the.food, when deemed important, such as the amount of shrimp in a shrimp cocktail product. Other reforms included reserving the use of "imitation" labeling for foods which are nutritionally inferior and establishing procedures for promulgating nutrition qualit guidelines to prevent nutritional deterioration of certain foods. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has been regulating the labeling of domestically produced food since at least 1906 when Congress adopted the Food and Drugs Act and the Meat Inspection Act. The Food and Drugs Act vested jurisdiction over food safety and quality in the USDA's Bureau of Chemistry. This jurisdiction was subsequently transferred in 1927, however, when the Food, Drug, and Insecticide Administration was established as a separate agency. (The name was changed to the Food and Drug Administration in 1931.) Jurisdiction over meat inspection has remained with the USDA and has become the cornerstone of the agency's regulatory authority in the area of food labeling. The 1906 law gave the USDA two-pronged labeling authority. The Act provided the agency with the power to inspect all meat and meat products moving in interstate commerce to assure that they were "sound, healthful, and wholesome," and contained “no dyes, chemicals, preservatives, or ingredients which (might) render (them) unsound, unhealthful, unwholesome, or unfit for human food." The products which passed these tests could be p‘ labeled "inspected and passed" and could then be shipped in interstate commerce. Those which did not pass were labeled "inspected and condemned“ and were destroyed for food purposes. The 1906 Act also authorized the USDA to prohibit meat and meat products from being marketed under "any false 0 deceptive label" used to describe their contents, although trade names 0. commonly used labels approved by the Secretary were permitted. Poultry was not covered by the 1906 Act primarily because at the time the law was being debated, poultry was conshdered a minor meat product, generally produced only for local consumption. Although the USDA provided some voluntary assistance to local poultry inspection programs in the 1920s, a CBS’ 3 IB80055 UPDATE-06/O6/80 zderal inspection program was not adopted until 1957. In that year, congress enacted the Poultry Products Inspection Act, which followed closely the requirements of the Meat Inspection Act. The labeling provisions of the 1957 Act were similar to, although somewhat more detailed than, those in the earlier law. The increased detail was, in part, due to changes in food packaging technology, which resulted in the widespread use of cans and jars. Although these containers provided improved protection against contamination of food products, they also prevented consumers from being able to examine the contents of the item they intended to purchase. Accurate and informative labeling thus took on greater importance. l Legislation enacted during the 1960s strengthened the twoi previous laws. The Wholesome Meat Act of 1967 expanded the meat inspection program to the intrastate market; gave the Secretary authority to regulate meat transportation, rendering, and storage facilities as well as other allied industries in an effort to prevent unfit products from entering the market; and required foreign neat inspection facilities to meet the same standards as those set for domestic plants as a precondition for meat imports. The law also revised the requirements for labeling meat products. The Wholesome Poultry Products Act of 1968 and the Egg Products Inspection Act of 1970 made similar changes with respect to these items. Under authority of these laws, USDA personnel inspect all plants which manufacture liquid, frozen, or dried egg products and all meat and poultry before and after slaughter and during processing packaging and labeling. Detailed regulations govern each stage of production. The final consumer :oduct bears two labels. One indicates that the item is "USDA inspected.” the other is the actual.product label which must contain, among other items, an accurate name and description of the item, the packer's or distributor's name and address or the country of origin if the item is imported, a list of ingredients in descending order of weight, and the net ‘weight of the contents. In order to assure that consumers get the product which the name implies, the product must conform to standards of composition set by the USDA. A label which indicates that the item is "smoked pork sausage," for example, provides a consumer with the assurance that the meat conforms to the following standard of composition. “Smoked Pork Sausage" is pork sausage that is smoked with hardwood or other approwed nonresinous materials. It may be seasoned with condimental substances ... It shall not be made with any lot of product which, in the aggregate, contains more than 50 percent trimmable fat ... To facilitate chopping or mixing, water or ice may be used in an amount not to exceed 3 percent of the total ingredients used. Under the authority of the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946, the USDA engages in a third kind. of labeling, voluntary grading, which includes inspection and certification of agricultural products. Voluntary grading, which has been in effect for several decades, was originally established to rovide a common language for wholesale trading and as a measure of value to llow producers to obtain prices for their products in line with their quality. It is used in much the same way today. Consumers are the indirect beneficiaries of this service. Provided they are familiar with the characteristics each grade connotes, consumers can use the grades to help determine food choices. For this reaso, food processors often use grade shields on their retail products. CRS— 4 IB80055 UPDATE-O6/O6/80. Under the voluntary grading program, producers who wish to participate request grading services from the USDA and are responsible for paying any fees involved. In return, the agency inspects the items and stamps them with a grade shield, indicating that the product has been graded according to Federalv quality standards. The standards include criteria on color, uniformity of size or shape, flavor, texture, maturity, and the number of defects. The USDA has issued grade standards for dairy products, fruits, vegetables, eggs, poultry and meat. FDA and USDA: Di.f.fer9.nce§ in-.‘3.9.