by Julie Harker
A website has put all things “COOL” in one place, for everyone in the food supply chain subject to country-of-origin labeling requirements seeking compliance details. The USDA’s interim final rule on COOL is explained in updated detail online at “cool.unl.edu”. Darrell Mark, extension livestock marketing specialist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, says the requirements at the producer level are not as cumbersome as some fear, “Producers don’t have to do anything in terms of recordkeeping other than what’s considered normal business records for them.”
Mark says producers WILL need verification of those records’ existence, “The industry has developed some fairly common as well as fairly generic affidavits that are available on this website. And these affidavits can basically be used so that your ordinary business records don’t have to be transferred with the animals.”
The COOL interim rule went into effect September 30th and for the next six months “educational compliance” is required. Strict enforcement of COOL does not begin until April 1st, 2009.
http://agecon.unl.edu/mark/country_of_origin.html
A website has put all things “COOL” in one place, for everyone in the food supply chain subject to country-of-origin labeling requirements seeking compliance details. The USDA’s interim final rule on COOL is explained in updated detail online at “cool.unl.edu”. Darrell Mark, extension livestock marketing specialist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, says the requirements at the producer level are not as cumbersome as some fear, “Producers don’t have to do anything in terms of recordkeeping other than what’s considered normal business records for them.”
Mark says producers WILL need verification of those records’ existence, “The industry has developed some fairly common as well as fairly generic affidavits that are available on this website. And these affidavits can basically be used so that your ordinary business records don’t have to be transferred with the animals.”
The COOL interim rule went into effect September 30th and for the next six months “educational compliance” is required. Strict enforcement of COOL does not begin until April 1st, 2009.
http://agecon.unl.edu/mark/country_of_origin.html