Seventeen months ago, Perdue Farms submitted a petition to the USDA-FSIS requesting modified labeling regulations with respect to a “pasture-raised” chicken claim in accordance with the Poultry Products Inspection Act.
FSIS has updated guidelines to define “pasture-raised” as “Chickens spending the majority of their lives on pasture with rooted-in-soil vegetative cover”. FSIS is encouraging producers to obtain third-party substantiation of any “pasture-raised” claim.
The Agency declined to codify specific definitions for “pasture-raised” and “free-range” in the form of a regulation based on the spurious concern of “stifling innovation”.
The definition of “pasture-raised” can now be applied but USDA stressed that the definition and claim are independent of regulations governing the National Organic Program.