I

106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 1144

To amend the Federal Meat Inspection Act to require that all meat and

meat food products, whether domestic or imported, bear a label notifying

the ultimate purchaser of meat and meat food products of the country

of origin of the livestock that is the source of the meat and meat

food products.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

MARCH 17, 1999

Mrs. CHENOWETH (for herself, Mr. POMEROY, Mr. TRAFICANT, Mrs. BONO,

Mr. SHOWS, Mr. PHELPS, Mr. MICA, Mr. HERGER, Mr. CHAMBLISS, Mr.

HILL of Montana, Mrs. EMERSON, Mr. LATOURETTE, Mr. SESSIONS, Mr.

BARTLETT of Maryland, Mr. MCHUGH, Mr. NORWOOD, Mr. DOOLITTLE,

Mr. WATTS of Oklahoma, Mr. HALL of Texas, Mr. HUNTER, Mrs. THURMAN, Mr. ROHRABACHER, Mr. SMITH of New Jersey, Mr. WELLER, Mr.

WATKINS, Mr. EDWARDS, Mr. SANDERS, Mr. REGULA, Mr. EVANS, Mrs.

CUBIN, Mr. WELDON of Florida, Mr. COBURN, Mr. KUCINICH, Ms. KAPTUR, and Mr. THUNE) introduced the following bill; which was referred

to the Committee on Agriculture

A BILL

To amend the Federal Meat Inspection Act to require that

all meat and meat food products, whether domestic or

imported, bear a label notifying the ultimate purchaser

of meat and meat food products of the country of origin

of the livestock that is the source of the meat and

meat food products.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
2

•HR 1144 IH

1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Country-of-Origin

3 Meat Labeling Act of 1999’’.

4 SEC. 2. COUNTRY-OF-ORIGIN LABELING OF MEAT AND

5 MEAT FOOD PRODUCTS.

6 (a) LABELING REQUIRED.—The Federal Meat In7 spection Act is amended by inserting after section 7 (21

8 U.S.C. 607) the following new section:

9 ‘‘SEC. 7A. REQUIREMENTS RELATED TO COUNTRY-OF-ORI10 GIN LABELING.

11 ‘‘(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section:

12 ‘‘(1) LIVESTOCK.—The term ‘livestock’ means

13 cattle, sheep, swine, goats, horses, mules, or other

14 equines.

15 ‘‘(2) DOMESTIC MEAT.—The term ‘domestic

16 meat’ means a carcass, part of a carcass, meat, or

17 meat food product derived entirely from domestic

18 livestock.

19 ‘‘(3) DOMESTIC LIVESTOCK.—The term ‘domes20 tic livestock’ means livestock that satisfy all of the

21 following:

22 ‘‘(A) The animal is born in the United

23 States.

24 ‘‘(B) The animal is raised throughout its

25 entire life in the United States.
3

•HR 1144 IH

1 ‘‘(C) The animal is slaughtered and other2 wise processed in the United States.

3 ‘‘(4) IMPORTED MEAT.—The term ‘imported

4 meat’ means a carcass, part of a carcass, meat, or

5 meat food product that does not satisfy the defini6 tion of domestic meat.

7 ‘‘(5) IMPORTED LIVESTOCK.—The term ‘im8 ported livestock’ means livestock that does not sat9 isfy the definition of domestic livestock.

10 ‘‘(6) ULTIMATE PURCHASER.—

11 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘ultimate

12 purchaser’, with regard to a carcass, part of a

13 carcass, meat, or meat food product, means—

14 ‘‘(i) a person who buys the item for

15 consumption;

16 ‘‘(ii) a public or private institution

17 that serves the item for consumption; or

18 ‘‘(iii) a restaurant or other food serv19 ice establishment that serves the item for

20 consumption.

21 ‘‘(B) EXCEPTION.—Other than as provided

22 in clauses (ii) and (iii) of subparagraph (A), the

23 term does not include a person who buys a car24 cass, part of a carcass, meat, or meat food

25 product for resale.
4

•HR 1144 IH

1 ‘‘(b) COUNTRY-OF-ORIGIN LABEL REQUIRED.—

2 ‘‘(1) PURPOSE.—Country-of-origin labels are

3 required under this section so that the ultimate pur4 chasers of meat and meat food products in the

5 United States are accurately informed of the country

6 of origin of the livestock from which meat and meat

7 food products are derived.

8 ‘‘(2) INITIAL USE OF LIVESTOCK.—A packer or

9 processor that uses livestock to produce a carcass,

10 part of a carcass, meat, or meat food product that

11 is offered for sale, sold, or resold within the United

12 States, either in its original form or in a further

13 processed form, shall affix a label to the carcass,

14 part of a carcass, meat, or meat food product that

15 identifies the country or countries in which the live16 stock were born, raised, and slaughtered from which

17 the carcass, part of a carcass, meat, or meat food

18 product was derived.

19 ‘‘(3) USE OF DOMESTIC MEAT OR IMPORTED

20 MEAT.—A packer or processor that uses domestic

21 meat or imported meat to produce a carcass, part of

22 a carcass, meat, or meat food product that is offered

23 for sale, sold, or resold within the United States, ei24 ther in its original form or in a further processed

25 form, shall affix a label to the carcass, part of a car-
5

•HR 1144 IH

1 cass, meat, or meat food product that identifies the

2 country or countries in which the livestock were

3 born, raised, and slaughtered from which the domes4 tic meat or imported meat was derived.

5 ‘‘(c) MAINTENANCE OF LABEL.—

6 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—A packer or processor re7 ferred to in subsection (b), and each subsequent re8 seller of the carcass, part of a carcass, meat, or

9 meat food product, shall be responsible for ensuring

10 that the country-of-origin label is maintained

11 throughout the chain of distribution until the car12 cass, carcass part, meat, or meat food product is

13 sold to the ultimate purchaser.

14 ‘‘(2) EXCEPTIONS.—Institutions that serve

15 meat or meat food products for consumption and

16 restaurants and other food service establishments

17 shall neither be required to, nor restricted from, no18 tifying their customers of the country of origin of

19 the meat or meat food products they serve.

20 ‘‘(d) RESTRICTION ON USE OF UNITED STATES

21 MEAT LABEL.—A carcass, part of a carcass, meat, or

22 meat food product may not bear a label identifying the

23 carcass, part of a carcass, meat, or meat food product as

24 United States meat unless it consists entirely of domestic

25 meat.
6

•HR 1144 IH

1 ‘‘(e) TREATMENT OF IMPORTED MEAT AND IM2 PORTED LIVESTOCK.—In the case of imported meat, the

3 country-of-origin label required by this section shall also

4 identify the country or countries from which the livestock,

5 carcass, part of a carcass, meat, or meat food product (as

6 the case may be) was imported into the United States.

7 In the case of live imported livestock imported into the

8 United States for slaughter, whether fed for a time in the

9 United States and slaughtered or imported only for

10 slaughter, the country-of-origin label shall also identify the

11 country or countries from which the livestock were im12 ported into the United States.

13 ‘‘(f) TREATMENT OF BLENDED PRODUCTS.—In the

14 case of a blended meat or meat food product, the country15 of-origin label required by this section shall list the coun16 try or countries of origin of the livestock from which the

17 blended meat or meat food product was derived, in de18 scending order of predominance therein.

19 ‘‘(g) LABEL DESCRIPTION AND PLACEMENT.—In the

20 case of a carcass, part of a carcass, meat, or meat food

21 product offered for sale to an ultimate purchaser, the

22 country-of-origin label shall be placed on the carcass, part

23 of the carcass, meat, or meat food product, or its imme24 diate package or container, in such a location that the

25 label is clearly visible to the ultimate purchaser. The coun-
7

•HR 1144 IH

1 try-of-origin lettering shall be of a size at least equal to

2 other lettering contained on the carcass, meat, or meat

3 food product, or its immediate package or container.

4 ‘‘(h) RELATION TO INSPECTION STAMP.—An inspec5 tion stamp required under section 7 shall not be a sub6 stitute for the country-of-origin label, and shall not be rep7 resented by anyone as proof or certification of the country

8 of origin of the livestock from which a carcass, part of

9 a carcass, meat, or meat food product is derived.’’.

10 (b) INCLUSION OF COUNTRY-OF-ORIGIN REQUIRE11 MENTS IN DEFINITION OF MISBRANDED.—Section 1(n) of

12 the Federal Meat Inspection Act (21 U.S.C. 601(n)) is

13 amended—

14 (1) by striking ‘‘or’’ at the end of paragraph

15 (11);

16 (2) by striking the period at the end of para17 graph (12) and inserting ‘‘; or’’; and

18 (3) by adding at the end the following new

19 paragraph:

20 ‘‘(13) if it fails to bear a country-of-origin label

21 as required by section 7A.’’.

22 (c) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by

23 this section shall take effect 60 days after the date of en24 actment of this Act.

Æ