The county agency that inspects labelled goods for accuracy and weight is
urging federal government to undo an amended rule, according to
reports.
The USDA rule change, which recently went into effect, requires
California to change the way meat and poultry packaging is weighed, said Kurt
Floren, director of Weights and Measures Department in Arcadia. According to
Floren, the change could have consumers paying more for less meat at the
market.
Consumers pay more for less meat
The change requires inspectors to use a "dry tare" form of testing in which
all fluids within a package must be credited as part of its content. Tare is
considered to be the weight of packaging and all materials - tags, clips,
stickers absorbent soakers - that are not part of the product being purchased,
Floren stated.
This means that when shoppers buy a package of meat or poultry, they may
end up paying per pound prices for extra liquids and solutions that add up
to 25-30% of a product's labelled weight, Floren noted.
"That's an unfair advantage for the company using more liquid," said
Weights and Measures spokesman Ken Pellman, assing that it is unreasonable for
consumers to pay for up to 30% added fluids when they believe they are buying
solid meat.
Asking for a suspension of the rule
Floren and California Agriculture Commissioners and Sealers Association, is
asking the USDA's FSIS to suspend the rule.
This is aimed at providing the public and consumer groups more time to
weigh in on it. However, the USDA perceives solutions and liquids as an
important part of the product, according to a federal register summary that
includes the agency's position.
"The agency regards any solutions that are added to meat or poultry to be
part of the product and considers free-flowing liquids to be an integral
component of these products, and therefore uses the 'dry tare', not the 'wet
tare' method," the summary said.
Floren further said that under the wet tare
method in California, fluids in packages and those absorbed into packaging
material have not been considered part of the product weight.
Even though
many states in the US use the dry tare method, Floren stated that the wet tare
has traditionally protected California consumers. This because it discourages
packers from adding unreasonably high volumes of solutions presented as
flavouring agents, and counted as meat-per-round prices.
Floren not pleased
Floren was not pleased with the USDA's publication of a notice of proposed
rule changes in April 2006, which made no notice of an intent to exclude wet
tare provisions and which didn't give sufficient time for the public to comment
on the issue. "Consumers and Weights and Measures had no opportunity to comment
on what amounted to significant changes in federal regulations," he said.
He also stated that if his agency had time, he would have commented on a
host of packaging concerns, which includes labelling irregularities.