California Food & Wine Attorney Analyzes the New Country of Origin Labeling Law (cool)

If you live anywhere in California, whether it is in farming areas such as the Central Valley, the Imperial Valley or the Coachella Valley, or in cities such as Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Coachella, Thermal, La Quinta, Brawley, Fresno, La Jolla, Del Mar, Encinitas, Carlsbad, San Marcos, Vista, Escondido, San Diego, Huntington Beach, Westminster, Buena Park, Anaheim, Santa Ana, Costa Mesa, Irvine, Newport Beach, Corona del Mar, Laguna Beach, or Laguna Hills. Whether you work in Orange County, CA, San Clemente, San Juan Capistrano, Yorba Linda, Fullerton, Ontario, Rancho Cucamonga, Riverside, San Bernardino, Temecula, Santa Ynez or Santa Barbara you will be surprised to see a change at the stores when you buy food and drink, or other agricultural products.

The change has to do with a new regulation in food law. California food and agriculture lawyers won't be in the produce aisle. And California agricultural attorneys won't be lurking near the beer and wine. California personal injury attorneys may not even be looking for slip and fall accident victims. But the change will please customers who care where their food comes from. 

Until now, most consumers had no idea from which country the food they were eating came from. With the new COOL (Country of Origin Labeling) law taking effect after September 30, 2008, all that will change, with a few exceptions and a few quirks.

Now when you buy that apple, pick up a package of most meats, or bag a head of lettuce, you will be able to glean from either a label, sticker or notice of some kind what country it came from. Unfortunately, as of yet, the law does not extend to dairy products.

The law also does not apply to organ meats such as heart, liver or kidney.The law also provides exceptions for processed foods such as bacon or foods that are mixed together such as peas and carrots, but it's likely to help consumers feel much safer in being able to avoid food from certain countries, especially during food poisoning outbreaks, and feel better able to buy American if they want to.

There are also exceptions in COOL for butchers, fish markets, restaurants, restaurants in hotels, school cafeterias, and small retailers. Additionally if spices, sauce or breading has been added, no labeling is required. Though not exactly food, the law also does not apply to pharmaceuticals, though there are calls to extend the law to them. Produce mixed in displays may simply be labeled as being "from two or more countries of origin."

There are other discrepancies with how the law will be applied. Fish caught off the coast of Alaska by a Chinese or Japanese owned ship may be labeled as a product of China or Japan. Beef raised in another country that spends 30 days in a feed lot in the U.S. can be labeled as coming from the U.S.

Consumers are likely going to be surprised when they see how much of their food is imported. "I've been eating this?" and "This comes from what country?" will likely be heard by check out clerks as consumers stand in line and look over the new labels.

It has been suggested by some that it was meat packers who didn't want the obligation to sort out cattle from Canada and Mexico, who are the reason why at least to start, beef may be labeled with just a North American country of origin label, as opposed to a U.S. country of origin label. Sadly, with this country's lack of geographical knowledge (just watch Jay Leno when he asks people on the street where Canada is), many people will assume that "North American" means that the beef couldn't possibly have come from outside the U.S., much less Mexico.

Retailers are given discretion how they label the food. Meat counters, for instance, may simply list all the countries where the meat is produced, or they can label each cut. Hamburger will still likely give the consumer pause as meat that is ground up may come from numerous countries.