NC State professor explains new requirement for term ‘Product of USA’

Selina Urieta-Garcia Correspondent

Food Safety and Inspection Services released a new requirement on March 6 that only allows products to be labeled as a “Product of USA” if the food’s entire lifespan took place in the U.S.

Before produce and products can make it to the aisles in grocery stores, precautions must be taken to ensure consumers recieve safe food products such as the livestocks, inspections, packaging and labeling.

Dana Hanson, an associate professor in food science at NC State and meat specialist, said the process is to make sure consumers receive safe, affordable and wholesome foods.

“If you can imagine anything in the grocery store, whether it’d be fresh product that is literally cut and delivered, say in the produce section, or a box of cereal, or a gallon of milk, or canned green beans, there’s a lot of science to get it there,” Hanson said. “And so our department [Food, Processing and Nutrition

Sciences] addresses all those different touchpoints to get foods to consumers safe, affordable and wholesome.”

Regardless if it’s fresh produce or processed foods, both products are still regulated through different agencies.

Gabriel Harris, professor in food science and co-director of the undergraduate food science program at NC State, explained the difference between products regulated by USDA and FDA.

“USDA is really in charge of raw meat products, hamburgers, those kinds of things,” Harris said. “Something like a Slim Jim or something at a convenience store, that would be more FDA territory.”

In the USDA department, the Food Safety and Inspection Service is responsible for following safety and inspection regulations on raw products such as meat, poultry and eggs.

According to the Food Safety and Inspection Services, the public has petitioned to revise “its regulations to define the conditions under which voluntary claims may be used on the labels of meat, poultry, and egg products, as well as voluntarily inspected products, to indicate that the products are of U.S. origin.”

Hanson said although various animals are born, raised and processed in the United States, there’s still a demand to import meat products from other countries due to the size and population of our country, as well as to fulfill fast food restaurant ingredients.

“Demand for hamburger is high, so we may not have all that carcass ground, but there’s a lot of McDonald’s, there’s a lot of In-N-Out, there’s a lot of other demand for those products that we need to fill in the gaps oftentimes with imported products,” Hanson said.

Countries like Brazil have way more products than their population uses, Hanson said.

“Brazil has a huge livestock industry, crop industry, and they export a tremendous amount of their product, partially because A: they’ve got a lot of it, and B: they produce more than the population can consume,” Hanson said.

GRAPHIC BY WYLIE PHU

Even if animals are born in other countries and are brought to the U.S. to be raised, Hanson said consumers do not need to worry about the process because the animals are under the guidance of the U.S.

“Unequivocally, we have the safest, most abundant and affordable food supply in the world,” Hanson said. “And in vain, to be processed in the United States, we’ve got food safety regulations … frontline inspectors in all food processing plants.”

“It’s really not an issue because the cattle that come from Canada are raised in a responsible manner, but once they come in the U.S., they’re under our guidance from even the live production side, but certainly in the food processing arena,” Hanson said. “So it’s not like we’re bringing inferior products in from other countries and trying to pass it off as lesser quality or less wholesome products.”