Time to Get COOL (Country of Origin Labeling)

This morning, GAP joined other food safety advocates in urging Congress to authorize adequate funding in the next appropriations bill so that the US Department of Agriculture might immediately implement mandatory country of origin labeling (COOL) for food. Currently, the US imports over 80 million shipments of food from abroad each year and inspects less than 0.3% of them. Apart from seafood, these foods are not labeled and many consumers have no idea where their food comes from. Following the recent pet food scandal, where workers in China intentionally spiked wheat gluten with melamine to falsely increase the appearance of protein in the food, it has become increasingly clear that all food safety inspection systems are not created equal.

-- Jacqueline Ostfeld