The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced the availability of updated guidelines recommending enhanced documentation to support animal care and environmental claims made on meat and poultry product labels.
“USDA continues to deliver on its promise to provide fairness and choice for farmers and consumers alike, and that means supporting transparency and high-quality standards,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “This update levels the playing field for companies that use these claims honestly and ensures people can trust the labels when buying meat and poultry products.”
Animal-raising claims, such as “raised without antibiotics,” “grass-fed,” and “free-range,” and environmental claims, such as “regeneratively raised” and “climate friendly,” are voluntary marketing claims that highlight certain aspects of how the animals from which meat and poultry products are produced are raised and how producers maintain or improve the land or implement environmentally sustainable practices. The documentation that companies submit to support these claims is reviewed by the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), and only after the agency's approval can the claims be included on the labels of meat and poultry products sold to consumers.
FSIS last updated its guidelines on these claims in 2019.
In the revised guidelines, FSIS strongly encourages the use of third-party certification to substantiate animal care and environmental claims. Third-party certification of animal care and environmental claims helps ensure that such claims are true and not misleading by having an independent organization verify that standards of animal care and environmental management are met on the farm. The revised guidelines also emphasize more robust documentation of environmental and animal care claims.
Additionally, the updated guidelines now recommend that facilities that make “antibiotic-negative” claims, such as “raised without antibiotics” or “never using antibiotics,” implement regular sampling and testing programs to detect antibiotic use in animals prior to slaughter or obtain third-party certification that includes testing. The revisions were made based on sampling data, petitions, public comments on those petitions, and feedback received from a wide range of stakeholders.
In light of concerns about negative claims about antibiotics, FSIS announced last year that it would partner with USDA's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) to conduct a study to evaluate the veracity of these claims. FSIS collected liver and kidney samples from 196 eligible cattle at 84 slaughter facilities in 34 states, and ARS analyzed the samples using methods that cover more than 180 veterinary drugs, including a range of major antibiotic classes. The study found antibiotic residues in approximately 20 percent of samples from the “antibiotic-free” market.