Impact of COOL on Canadian slaughter hogs

The USDA issued its interim final rule for Mandatory Country of Origin Labelling at the end of July and it is now accepting public comment.

The bill calls for four labels.
Label A would designate meat from animals produced and killed in the US
Label B would be meat from animals produced in the US and another country and killed in the U.S.
Label C would be for meat from animals imported for direct slaughter. 
Label D would be meat from animals produced and processed in another country.

Manitoba Pork Council Chair Karl Kynoch says the main outstanding concern is with the label for meat from animals imported for direct slaughter. Initial concerns were that all livestock heading south would be cut off.

“One thing they have done is they are allowing the Americans to put the product from label A into label B and mix it with label B so, even if they're killing hogs that have been born, raised and processed in the US, those can be mixed with, for example, Canadian hogs and be called product of US and Canada. So that's a real positive” said Kynoch.

Related Website
• Manitoba Pork Council

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