WASHINGTON—The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) today announced that it will solicit further public comment as the Agency seeks to define the conditions under which it would permit the voluntary claim "natural" to be used in the labeling of meat and poultry products. The agency made the announcement through the publication of an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR).
The Agency is seeking comments to clarify and resolve issues surrounding the "natural" claim, including how best to coordinate FSIS' regulation of "natural" claims with the Agricultural Marketing Service's (AMS) voluntary "naturally raised" marketing claim standard. The Agency believes that the ANPR will facilitate the emergence of consensus on the meaning of "natural" and will allow the Agency to move quickly to a proposed rule.