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New beef labels in limbo at White House
The White House has missed the deadline for reviewing regulations aimed at protecting consumers from food-borne illnesses in beef.
The proposals, which were sent to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) in September, would require food producers to label beef products that have been tenderized by a mechanical needle or blade.
An investigation by The Kansas City Star last year found the tenderizing process has resulted in millions of pounds of meat being contaminated with E. coli bacteria.
The rules submitted to OIRA for approval would require labels on the tenderized beef informing consumers that they must cook the meat to a higher temperature. While the USDA recommends solid cuts of beef be cooked to 145 degrees, meat that has been tenderized must be cooked to 160 degrees — the same temperature as ground beef — in order to be considered safe.
The USDA had pushed manufacturers to voluntarily label the processed meat to allow consumers to follow the temperature guidelines, but many still do not, according to the Star’s investigation.
The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association acknowledges that there have been “disease outbreaks associated with mechanically tenderized beef” and says, “enhancing the safety of beef products is a priority for the U.S. beef industry and resources will be directed to improving the systems used to produce non-intact beef products.”
The USDA alone has nine rule proposed or final rules still under consideration, six of which have passed the 90-day deadline. Nutrition standards for national school lunch programs, for example, have sat at the OMB since last March.
