A3B-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, April 14,2001
THE REGULATORY
JUNGLE
John Berry
Ag Marketing Educator
Lehigh County
Farmers are creative! I hear all
kinds of requests for information.
But you know, I’ve never
laughed at one or shook my head
after hanging up the phone.
After all, if you really make a se
rious go at it, most of those crea
tive ideas really could make
some money on a diversified
farm.
Of all those requests, the most
frequent ones I’ve been getting
lately, besides information on or
ganic farming and certification,
is adding value, in particular to
meat products. Anytime you add
value to a commodity, it could
fall into a totally different cat
egory for regulations. And those
regulations can be very confus
ing.
Regulations
Why are there regulations on
value-added products? Regula
tions help to keep the truth
straight for consumers. They
protect the consumer with safety
issues and from fraud.
Who does the regu
lating? There are a
number of agencies
you would need to be
in contact with:
• USDA The
United States Depart
ment of Agriculture
regulates raw agricul
tural products. This
would include meat.
USDA also regulates
processed meat prod
ucts that contain
greater than two per
cent meat as well as all
sausages. USDA
works in unison with
other allied agencies
such as Food Safety
and Inspection Service
(FSIS) and Animal
and Plant Health In
spection Service
(APHIS).
• FDA The Food
and Drug Administra
tion regulates all pro
cessed foods. Meat
that is sold directly to
the end consumer or
from the wholesaler on
is under FDA jurisdic
tion. They, too, work
in arrangements with
other allied agencies
such as the State De
partment of Health
and the local county
health departments.
• Federal Trade
Commission.
• Occupational
Safety and Health Ad
ministration (work
place).
• Environmental
Protection Agency.
• Department of
Commerce (weights
and measures).
• Bureau of Alco
hol, Tobacco and Fire
arms.
• What kinds of
things to these agen-
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cies regulate?
• Production and processing
conditions.
• Sources of inputs.
• Labeling and claims on la
bels.
• Distribution and retail con
ditions.
• Liability assignment.
In general, USDA and EPA
regulate production issues while
the FDA regulates processing is
sues and sources of inputs. It is
important to remember that reg
ulations generally do not assure
quality of a product, but rather
regulations deal with safety of a
product and prevention of eco
nomic fraud to the consumer.
The possible exception is with
USDA meat quality grades.
Again, regulations are for safety
and fraud, not quality. So you
need to be sure you have a quali
ty product that consumers will
want to purchase before you go
through all the hassles of regula
tions.
United States
Department of Agriculture
What does the USDA regu
late?
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• Beef (veal), pork, lamb,
goats.
• Poultry chickens, turkeys,
ducks and geese.
The USDA does not regulate
exotic species, but they have the
ability to do so if you request
them Exotic species include ani
mals such as rabbits and some
other small mammals, antelope,
bison, deer, elk, reindeer, water
buffalo, water fowl, and ratites
(emu, ostrich, rhea).
The major regulations that the
USDA covers are plant construc
tion and overall operation of the
plant, including good manufac
turing practices and HACCP re
quirements. They also regulate
personnel, allowed ingredients in
a product, percentage of ingredi
ents, (standards of identity) and
labeling.
USDA labeling regulations in
clude federal inspection mark,
name of the product, ingredients
list (if applicable), identification
of manufacturing or distributor,
accurate statement of net con
tents, safety handling instruc
tions (for raw products), and nu
tritional labeling (for some
products).
USDA requires that labeling
be preapproved before it can be
used in retail sale. Usually a
USDA regulated facility will
have someone who can help with
label design and approval. There
are expediters who can help you
with labeling review branch of
the USDA.
The USDA does not directly
regulate meat after it leaves a
USDA, inspected facility -des
tined for retail, meat that is
bought and sold among individu
als as the live animal, and meat
that is processed by “custom
exempt” processors (the end user
is the owner of the product).
To leam more about USDA
regulations, contact USDA Tech
nical Information Center, (402)
221-7400 or USDA Website:
http://www.usda.gov.
Food and Drug
Administration
What does the FDA regulate?
They regulate all processed foods
except those containing signifi
cant amounts of meat, milk, or
eggs, seafood (including freshwa
ter), all products at retail and the
food service industry.
Remember that the FDA regu
lates all processed foods. This in
cludes plant construction and op
eration to be sure the plant is
using good manufacturing prac
tices and following HACCP re
quirements (seafood, voluntary
for food service), being sure that
allowed ingredients are generally
recognized as safe, the percent
age of ingredients (standards of
identity), and labeling.
The FDA regulates inspectable
faculties. This includes construc
tion detaUs such as walls, floors,
ceilings, water source, and equip
ment as well as operational de
tails and personnel.
When it comes to labeling,
FDA requires a label to have the
following: the name of the prod
uct, ingredients list (if applic
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Installation of H.D.P.E. Liner Systems for:
able), identification of manufac
turer or distributor, accurate
statement of net contents, and
nutritional labeling (for some
products if going into retail
store).
A label must meet FDA re
quirements, but there is no pre
approval process of the label be
fore a product goes to retail as is
required with USDA.
If you claim any of the follow
ing on a label, be prepared to
show the data that baclcs it up;
content claims (such as low, lite,
high, rich, fat, sodium, calories)
and (such as cancer, heart dis
ease, birth defects, osteoporosis).
The FDA does not have as de
fined a stance on “value label
ing” (all natural, free range, or
ganic, etc.) as the USDA.
UPC codes (universal product
codes) are not a government re
quirement, but managed by a
private company. They cost
about $3OO a year for the initial
code (based on estimated sales).
An incremental additional cost is
charged for each additional code
in the same company. For more
information, see http://
www.uc-council.org/.
The FDA does not regulate
anything the USDA regulates
nor nutritional supplement-im
plied claims such as medicinal
herbs.
To leam more about the FDA
regulations, contact local health
department; FDA Small Busi
ness Representative in Dallas,
Texas, (214) 655-8100, ext. 128;
or the FDA Website: http://
www.fda.gov.