Country of Origin Labeling (COOL)

Resource Center

Industry Resources

• Compliance Guide for Mandatory Country of Origin Labeling (Free for United Fresh Members)
• Produce Industry COOL Webinar: Power Point Slides and Full Video Presentation
• United Fresh Washington Public Policy Conference: Policy Forum - "Complying with COOL in your Business"
• FMI/AMI/United Fresh COOL Regional Workshops
• Regional Workshops - COOL Presentation
• COOL Interim Final Rule
• COOL in the 2008 Farm Bill
• USDA COOL Webpage
• USDA COOL Q&A Document
• Examples of Records for COOL Verification

Current Status

Country of origin labeling of fresh produce - also known as COOL - has been discussed for many years throughout the produce industry.  Surveys indicate that more than 50 percent of fresh produce offered for sale in retail grocery stores today is labeled with country of origin on packaging or PLU stickers.  And, many retailers provide country of origin information on in-store signage.  But, beginning September 30, 2008, all fresh produce sold in retail stores in the United States must comply with a mandatory COOL rule.  To view the Interim Final Rule, which contains the requirements for consumer notification and product marketing, the record keeping responsibilities of both retailers and suppliers of covered commodities, and pertinent definitions, please click here.  Because this rule is an Interim Final Rule, USDA is soliciting comments until the September 30, 2008 implementation deadline.  To submit comments on the Interim Final Rule, click here.  To submit comments to United Fresh on the COOL Interim Final Rule, please submit to Andrew Marshall.

For an in depth analysis of the COOL Interim Final Rule, please view the United Fresh Compliance Guide for Mandatory Country of Origin Labeling (Free download for United Fresh Members).

Background

Since legislation mandating COOL became law with the 2002 Farm Bill, United Fresh has worked extensively with USDA and congressional leaders to see that regulations developed to implement the law were fair, practical and cost-effective for the produce industry.  Because of concerns about the regulatory burden of the 2002 law, the effective date of this law, originally due to go into effect September 30, 2004, has been delayed twice by Congress until September 30, 2008.  Concurrently, all stakeholders in the COOL debate in Congress reached agreement on important revisions to the 2002 law.  These revisions are contained in the 2008 Farm Bill legislation which became law on June 18, 2008 (P.L. 110-246). They include the following:

• The potential liability for retail mistakes or absence of labeling at point of purchase has been significantly reduced.  After finding a retailer to be "in violation," USDA must give the retailer 30 days to "comply" with the Act.  At the end of 30 days, USDA cannot fine a retailer unless that retailer has "not made a good faith effort" and "continues to willfully violate the Act."  This significantly eases the potential liability for retailers.

• Suppliers who do not provide country of origin information to the retailer, as required in the Act, are held to the same terms as above - 30 days to come into compliancee, with potential fines imposed only if they do not "make a good faith effort" or "continue to willfully violate the Act" by not providing country of origin information to retailers.

• Retailers will not be liable for misinformation provided by suppliers.

• All proposed fines on either retailers or suppliers who are found to be "willfully violating" the Act are subject to a hearing before USDA, and are limited to $1,000 for each violation.

• USDA is barred from requiring any new record-keeping other than normal records kept in the regular course of doing business.

• A new specific provision will allow labeling of a U.S. State, region, or locality in which a product is produced to meet label standards as product of U.S.  Therefore, a descriptor such as Minnesota Grown or Pride of New York would be sufficient labeling to comply with the law.

USDA incorporated these changes into their Interim Final Rule, which was announced on July 29, 2008 and published in the Federal Register on August 1, 2008.

Please continue to revisit this webpage as information will be updated frequently and as needed.

Staff Contacts 

Robert Guenther
rguenther@unitedfresh.org
202-303-3409

Andrew Marshall
amarshall@unitedfresh.org
202-303-3407