What nationality is your ground beef?

Until now, when I bought commodity ground beef, I had no clue where it came from. But as of Sept. 30, 2008, long awaited government regulations require most supermarkets and grocery stores to inform consumers about the nationality of their beef, veal, lamb, pork, chicken, and even goat. These retail stores must also identify where in the world their fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables, peanuts, pecans, ginseng, and macadamia nuts were grown.

Congress passed the so-called, "country of origin labeling" or "COOL" legislation back in 2002, but under pressure from industry, delayed its implementation—requiring only labeling of wild and farm-raised fish and shellfish—until now.

COOL's full implementation is a big step forward for food safety-conscious people. A Consumer Reports poll released last year found that 92 percent of Americans agree that imported foods should be labeled by their country of origin. Labeling allows consumers to choose to buy foods raised locally, domestically, and from countries they trust. Some people may like to buy only U.S. products, or certain imported products, such as New Zealand lamb or Holland tomatoes.

COOL also gives consumers important information they can use to avoid foods linked to outbreaks of disease in certain countries. For instance, if a problem is identified in an imported food, such as happened with jalapeño and serrano peppers from Mexico earlier this year, then consumers will be able to avoid that product.

A label on meat that says, "Product of the U.S." means the animal was born, raised and slaughtered in America. Some animals are multinational. For example, meat derived from hogs that may have been born in Canada but raised and processed in the United States can be labeled, "Product of the U.S. and Canada."

Unfortunately, there are still seemingly unnecessary exemptions in the law. For instance:

• Fish markets and butcher shops are exempt. Under COOL, labeling is only required in supermarkets and other retail stores that purchase more than $230,000 of fresh or frozen produce a year. Fish stores and butchers—where some 11 percent of all meat and fish is sold—usually don't purchase that much produce, so they don't have to label their foods. Neither do restaurants, cafeterias, and lunchrooms.
• The law excludes processed foods and mixtures. Anything that's fried, broiled, grilled, boiled, steamed, baked, roasted, cured, smoked or emulsified and extruded, provided it wasn't pre-packaged abroad, is exempt. So, under COOL, raw peanuts must bear labels, but roasted peanuts do not. Foods that have added breading, chocolate or tomato sauce, or are combined in medleys such as fruit salad are also exempt. That means plain strawberries must be labeled with their country of origin, but chocolate-covered strawberries do not. COOL doesn't apply to powdered milk proteins or dairy, so it won't help U.S. consumers avoid China's dairy contamination scandal. Fortunately many processed foods packaged abroad are still required to be marked with country of origin information under the Tariff Act of 1930 and other longstanding regulations.

CR's recommendations. Despite COOL's shortcomings, read the labels and use the information to make more informed food choices. You might have to wait a little longer until you see country of origin information sprouting up since commodities produced or packaged before September 30, 2008, don't need to be labeled. And industry has six more months to comply. But keep a look out. Some retailers may label foods on their packaging with stickers, bands, twist ties, or pin tags. Others could possibly display them in holding bins under signs and placards labeled with the country of origin information. For more information, see the U.S. Agriculture Department's Web site for frequently asked questions (PDF)about COOL.

—Doug Podolsky, senior editor

To learn more about labels on the foods you eat, visit the Eco-labels center at www.GreenerChoices.org.