The Giant brand of grocery stores and its parent company Ahold has been criticized by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) after a mysterious meat label suddenly appeared on several of its products. The Washington Post reports that several Giant stores opted for an unauthorized label that just read “USDA Graded” instead of the standard certifications that most products receive.
As the article notes, this was alarming for multiple reasons. Firstly, the blue label was both devoid of useful information and visually unlike any of the more common meat labels found in most stores. The USDA found out about this late last month after receiving many complaints and a representative of the agency named Larry Meadows said that the label was created without their knowledge.
But the bigger problem is that this label is misleading. While “USDA Choice” and “USDA Select” labels correspond to certain qualities of meat, nearly all of the meat sold in the United States is “graded,” so simply saying that it is has nothing to do with meat quality.
In an article from WTOP, Meadows described the USDA’s reactions to this label. Ahold is reportedly getting rid of this label and using more accepted practices instead.
“We determined the ‘USDA graded’ was too generic,” Meadows said. “It really wasn’t an official approved seal within the department. Even though it’s truthful — it is USDA graded — it’s not an approved seal recognized within the regulation.”
If a company decides to make its own labels, it needs to do so in a way that won’t violate regulations or potentially deceive the consumer. An industrial label printer makes this more possible.
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