Nutrition Labeling of Meat Is Here: Are You Folloiwng the Rules?

Our colleague Dr. Carol Lorenzen, MU Meat Scientist, passed this information along to us over at the Beginning Farmer Project.  It's important to know and read so that you can be sure your following the rules when selling meat this summer. And the best part -- Dr. Lorenzen provides all the information you need below!

As most of you know nutritional labeling came your way on March 1, 2012.  The final rule requires nutritional labeling on single ingredient major meat and poultry cuts and ground meat and poultry with or without seasoning.  The nutritional information can be provided at the point of purchase or the product label.  Downloadable charts for point of purchase posting are available at http://www.fsis.usda.gov/regulations/Nutrition_Labeling/index.asp for major meat and poultry cuts but this does not include ground products. (See picture of the printable poster above.)  

These materials also specify the major cuts for each category which means if the cut isn’t listed, you don’t have to worry about the nutritional information.  The USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference also located on that page can be used to generate nutritional labeling for ground meat and poultry products which can then be posted at the point of purchase.   There are some exceptions to the final rule that you need to be aware of.  You don’t need to provide nutritional labeling for products that are intended for further processing, products that are custom slaughtered, products intended for export, and products either not for sale or packaged in less than ½ ounce packages provided there are no nutritional claims.  There is also one important exemption for chopped or ground meat and poultry products and that is the small business exemption.  The small business exemption applies to any company with less than 500 employees.  That means that most of you will only have to comply with nutritional labeling for major cuts.