The USDA has not imposed any penalties on retailers who have failed to comply with country-of-origin labeling requirements, according to an agency audit.
The agency's Agricultural Marketing Service, which oversees the COOL program, has also developed backlogs in notifying retailers that they're out of compliance with the law, the audit said.
In roughly 30 percent of non-compliance cases identified by USDA last year, the agency notified retailers of the problem more than two months after the review, the audit said.
Auditors from the USDA's Office of Inspector General found that "AMS officials did not identify and investigate repeat violators of the COOL requirements or assess monetary penalties where appropriate."
In several cases, the USDA should have further investigated whether the violations were willful but did not do so during follow-up reviews, the audit said.
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