The U.S. Department of Agriculture today released final rules for the labeling of meat and poultry–rules that have been stalled at the agency for 10 years. Unfortunately, the rules provide no new consumer benefit, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
Under the rules, packages of ground beef, a major source of saturated fat, and ground poultry must bear Nutrition Facts labels by January 2012. However, the Center for Science in the Public Interest said that most ground beef already has such labeling.
The group had urged USDA to prohibit "percent lean" statements on labels of ground meat. CSPI says that its research shows that the term "lean" misleads consumers into thinking that, say, "80 percent lean" ground beef is lower in fat than it really is. The term "low fat," as defined by the Food and Drug Administration, could not be used on products that contain more than 3 grams of fat per serving, a level that no ground beef meets. When consumer and health organizations opposed "percent lean" claims in the 1990s, USDA shelved its proposed rule. Now the agency is allowing the claims because, it says, consumers are used to seeing them.
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