Mack Graves Testifies to Federal Agency that 'Natural' Meats Needs to Stretch from 'Conception to Consumption'
From Sustainable Food News
Spam maker Hormel Foods’ petition to the federal government to codify a definition of ‘natural’ for meat products seeks to dilute the term by keeping it in its “current confusing and mistrusted form.”
That’s according to Mack Graves, chief executive officer of Western Grassland Meats dba Panorama Grass-Fed Meats, testifying Tuesday at a hearing conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) on possibly developing a marketing claim for the term ‘natural’ in the marketing of meat products.
Vina, Calif.-based Panorama markets natural and organic grass-fed beef to conventional and natural food retailers, and foodservice operators throughout the United States.
Graves has previously served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Coleman Natural Beef, and interim Chief Executive Officer of Meyer Foods, the parent of Meyer Natural Angus, arguably the largest and second largest natural beef companies in the United States.
The company contracts with 43 rancher/producers supplying it cattle raised to protocols that far exceed the current definition of ‘natural.’
Graves said he understands that the “vagueness” of the term ‘natural’ definition - minimally processed and no artificial ingredients - first established in 1982, “has sown seeds of consumer confusion and encouraged clever marketers to trumpet the word ‘natural’ on packages of their meat and poultry, even though such meat may have come from animals that were hardly ‘naturally raised.’”
“Such confusion has lasted far too long and a more meaningful definition of ‘natural’ is necessary,” he said.
Hormel implied in its petition that consumers or animal raisers may confuse ‘natural’ products with those that are free of antibiotics or growth stimulants.
Graves said “there is no confusion at Panorama, nor with our consumers, nor with our rancher/producers.”
“In our view, Hormel appears to be confused in its zeal to define ‘natural’ as simply minimally processing meat and poultry with no artificial ingredients,” he said.
Graves also accused Hormel of trying to ram through regulatory changes in a “race” with to beat the Food and Drug Administration in its response to The Sugar Association’s petition to them to define ‘natural.’
“There is no justification for the race,” Graves said. “Too many live animal producers, meat and poultry processors and marketers and, most importantly, consumers, will rely on a thorough and complete definition of ‘natural’ for it to be recklessly and quickly defined simply to win the “definition” race.”
Ultimately, Graves said, the definition of ‘natural’ must stretch from the livestock’s lifestyle to their diet to the processing and marketing of the meat and poultry products.
“If the new ‘natural’ definition is a process from “conception to consumption” and is verified to have been followed, then the words “USDA Natural” can be confidently and meaningfully placed on the resultant package of meat and poultry,” he said.
FSIS oversees that safety of nation’s commercial supply of meat, poultry, and egg products, and make sure they are truthfully packaged and labeled.
The agency has set a deadline of Jan. 11 for comments on any proposed changes to the definition, but Graves and others giving testimony asked for an extended deadline.
Meanwhile, the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service is working separately on developing a definition or marketing claim for ‘naturally raised.’
Some in the industry are concerned that a watered-down version of what the term is understood to mean could result in a broader definition and allow factory farming of ‘naturally raised’ meats.
