[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 41 (Wednesday, April 9, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H1384]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 SUPPORTING COUNTRY-OF-ORIGIN LABELING LEGISLATION ON IMPORTED FRUITS 
                             AND VEGETABLES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Ohio [Ms. Kaptur] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, at a later point I will have something to 
say about our distinguished colleague, Mr. Hayes of Illinois, with whom 
I had the great pleasure of serving for many years.
  Mr. Speaker, I wanted to inquire of families in America that if they 
this past week bought strawberries in the grocery store and then one of 
their children became ill from eating those berries, would they be able 
to find out, as a U.S. consumer, where those berries had been produced 
and who had processed them? The answer is no, they would not be able to 
find that information out, when in fact consumers in our country have a 
right to know where their food is coming from.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of a country-of-origin labeling 
bill on imported fresh fruits and vegetables. I also rise in support of 
labeling for frozen fruits and vegetables. Our distinguished colleague, 
the gentleman from California, Mr. Sonny Bono, has introduced the 
Imported Produce Labeling Act of 1997. I am pleased to join him as an 
original sponsor on that bill, to require all fresh fruits and 
vegetables to be clearly identified as to their country of origin. With 
all the pesticides used in other places and the difficulties with 
border inspection, this is the least we can do for our people.
  Also, we have written this week to the Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. 
Rubin. The Treasury Department has been dragging its feet for well over 
a year on the labeling of imported frozen items, which of course these 
particular strawberries, on which hundreds of our people have become 
ill, were imported berries that were processed and frozen. There is 
absolutely no reason that as we approach the year 2000 we cannot take 
better care of the American people.
  A recent poll showed that nearly 70 percent of our people want to 
know and favor country-of-origin labeling for both fresh and frozen 
commodities.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank my distinguished colleague, the gentleman from 
Michigan [Mr. Smith] for giving me the opportunity to place this on the 
Record.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of country of origin labeling on 
imported fruits and vegetables--both frozen and fresh.
  Nearly every consumer product has origin labeling except the produce 
we eat.
  Consumers have a right to know where their food is coming from.
  The use of pesticides in other countries and border inspection 
practices raise even more questions in the minds of consumers about the 
quality and health risks of imported fruits and vegetables.
  I am pleased to be a sponsor of the Imported Produce Labeling Act 
introduced by our colleague from across the aisle Representative Sonny 
Bono. This bill strengthens existing law to require all fresh fruits 
and vegetables to be clearly identified as to their country of origin.
  This bill simply closes existing loopholes that allow fresh fruits 
and vegetables to be exempt from country of origin labeling 
requirements, by requiring that the products themselves--or the bins, 
display cases or containers holding the commodity--be labeled at the 
retail level with their country of origin.
  It is critical that we clearly define the country of origin on all 
fruits and vegetables coming in this country so that we can effectively 
trace back bad lots.
  The press has been full of reports about frozen strawberries with 
misleading country of origin information which were associated with an 
outbreak of hepatitis among school children participating in the 
National School Lunch Program. Commodities purchased for the lunch and 
breakfast programs are required by statute to be grown in America, 
unless no domestic product is available. Based on news reports, it 
appears that the processor may have falsified documentation to make 
Mexican strawberries appear to be American produce. As a result of this 
deception, thousands of children are threatened with disease.
  On April 3, I wrote the Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin to urge him 
to proceed with the enactment of a final Customs Service Regulation 
which would clarify the requirements for country of origin labeling for 
frozen imported produce.
  Last July, Customs published a proposed regulation clarifying that 
frozen imported produce be clearly labeled as to country of origin on 
the front panel of packages, in permanent ink. In its Federal Register 
notice regarding the proposal, Customs declared that the clarification 
in policy was necessary because current standards allow variations in 
labeling which could create confusion or be misleading.
  Current law requires imported frozen produce to be clearly labeled as 
to country of origin. But it appears to be a common occurrence for 
frozen produce that is brought into the United States to be repackaged 
without the required labeling. In other instances in which packages are 
labeled, the size of type, or poor quality of ink, make it impossible 
for consumers or Customs inspectors to verify compliance with the law. 
Customs has warned that their responsibility in verifying that all 
packages sold in this country comply with the law is made extremely 
difficult in the absence of clear standards for where the country of 
origin label is to be displayed.
  Despite the importance of this issue and the right of all Americans 
to be informed about where the produce they buy for their families is 
from, Customs' proposed regulation received little public attention and 
few public comments during the comment period last summer. In fact, 
only about 50 individual comments were received: the majority of these 
were from food growers and processors in other countries.
  However, American consumers and American food growers and processors 
appear to feel strongly about this issue. In fact, a recent national 
poll conducted after the comment period closed found that nearly 70 
percent of American consumers would favor a Government regulation 
requiring country of origin labeling, and 73 percent stated that they 
would most likely notice the label if it appeared on the front panel of 
package. Perhaps most importantly, the survey found that 83 percent of 
consumers had never noticed a country of origin label on a package of 
frozen vegetables. These facts would seem to make the case for 
enactment of the Customs proposal crystal clear.
  The recent news reports of thousands of American school children put 
at risk of hepatitis from frozen strawberries, imported from Mexico but 
misidentified as being product of the United States, serves as a 
dramatic reminder of how important it is for all American consumers to 
know where the food they eat comes from. The Customs Service must 
enactment country of origin labeling on frozen fruits and vegetables 
immediately.

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