Country of origin food labeling required?

Country of origin food labeling required in the U.S.?

[chicago]

The short answer: Yes it is required. And it has been since 2002.

The more complicated answer is that what Congress passes, Congress can take away. The requirement for "country-of-origin labeling" -- or COOL, as Washington knows it -- for food products was postponed a year after its adoption, due to heavy lobbying from food groups saying the law was unnecessary and expensive.

Recent fears over imported foods, however, have given new momentum to reviving the law.

Though COOL's suspension is due to end in September 2008, food safety groups have called for it to end immediately. Worried opponents, meanwhile, are already working to derail the law's implementation.

Some say recent food scares have made the labeling an idea whose time has come, and bills in the House and Senate propose making it effective as early as this September.

[msg]

Thanks--I saw this on the other post as well.