DAIRY BEEF COMMITTEE MEETING

Jerry Dewey, Associated Foods Briefs Idaho FB Farmers and Ranchers about the new COOL rules and regulations on Thursday in Boise

COMPLIANCE WITH COOL A CHALLENGE

Boise--The Idaho Farm Bureau Dairy and Beef Committee is meeting with cattlemen, food retailers and government agencies to discuss the impacts of Country of Origin Labeling that went into effect September 30, 2008.

Jerry Dewey of Associated Foods told the committee that Associated will comply to the new rules. "The law is there and we'll comply the best we can, we've spent millions to buy more bandwidth just to keep records on all that meat. We ship 2 million cases of meat a week that's nearly a half billion dollars a week in beef, we have to keep those records for a year."

Dewey says the paper work is staggering but they've been working on it for years, he says there are still many misconceptions about COOL, perhaps the biggest is the intent of the new rules and regulations that originated from the commerce end of government rather than the food safety side.

"Cool has nothing to do with food safety, this is a marketing bill and should not to be confused with food safety. We're just telling the consumer where the food comes from. That’s our mission in our retail super markets."