US to strengthen rules for animal-based claims on food labels

With animal-based food products often coming packaged with a wide array of information labels, such as organic, natural, grass-fed, humanely raised and pasture-raised, there is some confusion about food labels related to animal welfare.

Marisa Erasmus, associate professor of animal sciences at Purdue University, said consumers are typically left to try to figure out what these labels mean in order to choose products that align with their personal and social values.

In June this year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that it is implementing a multi-step effort aimed at strengthening the substantiation of animal-raising claims. This action builds on the work USDA has already undertaken to protect US consumers from false and misleading labels.

The Purdue researchers are now watching to see what additional documentation animal food producers may be required to provide regarding food label claims.

In general, US producers need to submit claims about their food products to the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) for approval. The FSIS regulates food labels and claims on meat and poultry products. Some claims require that producers submit documentation before approval is granted.

Animal-raising claims, such as “grass-fed” and “free-range”, are voluntary marketing claims that highlight certain aspects of how the source animals for meat and poultry products are raised. In the US, these claims must be approved by USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) before they can be included on the labels of meat and poultry products sold to consumers. FSIS most recently updated its guideline on these claims in 2019.

The FSIS has received several comments from a wide range of stakeholders asking it to re-evaluate its oversight of animal-raising claims, specifically, how they are substantiated. In addition, the veracity of “negative” antibiotics claims (eg, “raised without antibiotics” or “no antibiotics ever”) has come into question.

According to Erasmus, one point of confusion is which claims are associated with animal welfare certification organisations that use third-party verification. “Producers that work with one of these organisations can put the latter’s seal on their products to indicate that the animals were raised according to certain standards. Typically, those standards are intended to offer higher animal welfare than what you would see with a conventional product. But a lot of consumers don’t necessarily know what these different seals mean. And the absence of a label claim does not mean that food animals were raised inhumanely.”

FSIS will be issuing a revised industry guideline to recommend that companies strengthen the documentation they submit to the agency to substantiate animal-raising claims. The agency plans to strongly encourage use of third-party certification to verify these claims.

Another claim that can cause confusion is the idea of “no antibiotics added”, which may be misleading because antibiotics are occasionally used to treat live animals, not added to meat products. If animals are given antibiotics, there is a mandatory withdrawal period allowing the antibiotics to pass through the animal’s system before any products are created from that animal.

FSIS, in partnership with USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS), will be conducting a sampling project to assess antibiotic residues in cattle destined for the “raised without antibiotics” market. The results of this project will help inform whether FSIS should require that laboratory testing results be submitted for the “raised without antibiotics” claim or start a new verification sampling program.

Other labels have more to do with how health benefits are perceived and do not relate as much to the animal’s welfare.

“We definitely want to make sustainable, healthy choices,” Erasmus said. “But just because an animal product has an organic label on it doesn’t always mean that animal had a better life than an animal that wasn’t raised organically.”

In the US, organics are regulated through the National Organic Program, which offers a label distinct to those provided by other sources.

Erasmus and her colleagues work closely with producers in Indiana and across the US to support humane animal production practices and conduct research providing guidelines for animal welfare and management.

Image credit: iStock.com/subjug