The USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) also plans to finalize proposed rules next year to modernize nutrition facts panels on meat and poultry products, said Jeff Canavan, deputy director for labeling and program enforcement at the agency.
Speaking at Prime Label Consultants’ 2024 Food Labeling Conference in Washington this month, Canavan also offered compliance guidelines for the final voluntary rule on U.S. country of origin labeling, which was released in March and takes effect in January 2026.
Stricter regulations for uncured labels accommodate new technologies
Canavan acknowledged that USDA’s regulations on raw products, including when products can be labeled “nitrates-free or no nitrates added,” are “rather outdated,” but said the department is drafting rules that will be published if not this year, then early next year.
He explained that the proposed rule addresses concerns raised by the Center for Science in the Public Interest in a 2019 petition urging FSIS to prohibit the use of “no nitrates or nitrites added” and “unprocessed” labels on processed products that use any source of nitrates and nitrites, including non-synthetic sources such as celery or cherry powder.
FSIS had previously indicated it would partially grant CSPI’s petition by amending the definitions of “cured” and “uncured” to allow nonsynthetic sources of nitrate to be approved as hardeners.
Canavan explained that the agency is dealing with a “completely different technical situation” than when the original regulations were promulgated, so companies that use natural vulcanizing agents now produce end products with similar levels of nitrates and nitrites as companies that use synthetic vulcanizing agents.
CSPI argues that loopholes in current regulations that allow naturally fermented foods to be labeled as “no added nitrates or nitrites” or “unfermented” could mislead consumers into believing these foods are healthy and low in nitrates and nitrites, which have been linked to several diseases.
“We are working on rulemaking to bring the regulations up to date with technology and on how to label whether these products have been aged with synthetic maturing agents or natural nitrates and nitrites, like cherry powder or celery powder,” Canavan said.
Proposed rule on cell culture labels coming soon
Canavan said the USDA plans to issue proposed rules on the labeling of cell-cultured meat and poultry “later this year,” which it is overseeing jointly with the FDA.
“We co-regulate these products with the FDA,” he explained, who oversees the biopsy and collection of cells from animals, the generation of cell banks, and the expansion and propagation of the cells in a controlled environment. “The actual harvesting passes under the jurisdiction of FSIS, and we’re responsible for the harvesting, processing, and packaging and labeling.”
In September 2021, USDA released an advance notice of proposed rulemaking seeking comment on the labeling of, and methods of identifying, meat and poultry products that consist of or contain cultured animal cells.
In response, USDA received 1,154 comments, including general agreement that the names of cell-cultured meat and poultry foods should be differentiated from conventional meat and poultry by informing consumers that they were produced using animal cell-culture technology, Canavan said.
They also noted that while “cell culture” was the most popular name among commenters overall, those in the cell culture industry preferred the term “cultivated,” and those in the traditional food industry preferred the term “lab-grown.”
“Our conclusion is that at this point the terms ‘cell culture’ or ‘cultivation’ would be generally accepted by all parties,” he added.
They also noted that USDA-approved labels for cell culture products to date have some basic requirements, such as using the term “cell culture” or “cell-cultured” in the same size, color, and font as the rest of the product name. The product name must be a single color on a contrasting background, and the full name of the product must appear on the principal display panel and in the ingredient statement.
Nutrition Facts Label “Reflects FDA Requirements”
The updated nutrition facts label is “one of those things that has been in the works for a while” and that the USDA expects to release it “later this year or early next year,” Canavan said.
“We have worked closely with the FDA in developing the proposed rule,” he said, adding that he expects it “will reflect FDA requirements.”
The USDA proposed rules to modernize the Nutrition Facts panel and consolidate regulations for meat and poultry in 2017. Until FSIS issues a final rule, labels for meat and poultry products are free to continue using the original nutrition regulations or voluntarily use the new FDA format, Canavan said.
