Country of Origin Labeling: Coverage, Rules, and Penalties

Country of origin labeling requirements in the United States come from three separate federal programs. The USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service runs a mandatory program that forces certain grocery retailers to display where specific raw foods came from. The Federal Trade Commission polices voluntary “Made in USA” claims on other consumer products. And the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) sets rules for voluntary “Product of USA” claims on meat, poultry, and eggs, with a stricter standard that takes effect January 1, 2026. What you have to do depends on what you sell and how you sell it.

Which Foods Are Covered

Mandatory country of origin labeling (COOL) applies only to a defined list of raw or minimally processed foods called “covered commodities”:

Muscle cuts and ground meat from lamb, venison, goat, and chicken
Wild-caught and farm-raised fish and shellfish
Fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables
Peanuts, pecans, macadamia nuts, and ginseng

Beef and pork are not on the list. Congress removed them in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2016.¹²

Processed foods are also outside the rule. Once a covered commodity has been cooked, cured, smoked, restructured, or combined with another substantial food ingredient, it stops being covered. Raw shrimp in a bag needs a label; breaded shrimp does not.³

Which Retailers Have to Comply

The mandate reaches retailers licensed under the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act (PACA). In practice that means grocery stores, supermarkets, and club warehouse stores whose annual purchases of fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables exceed $230,000.⁴⁵

Restaurants, cafeterias, food trucks, and other food service establishments are entirely exempt, along with small retailers below the PACA threshold. A salmon fillet at the supermarket carries origin information. The same salmon on a restaurant plate does not have to.

How Origin Is Determined

For muscle cuts of lamb, goat, venison, and chicken, a U.S. origin label requires that the animal was born, raised, and slaughtered in the United States. If any step happened elsewhere, every country involved must appear on the label.

Ground meat labels work differently because ground products often mix animals from several sources. The label must list every country of origin represented in the package. Ground lamb blended from domestic and Australian animals shows both countries.

For produce, nuts, ginseng, and seafood, a single-country U.S. label requires that the item was produced or harvested entirely in the United States. Seafood labels must also state whether the product is wild-caught or farm-raised. Mixed-origin packages list every country represented.

How the Label Has to Appear

Retailers can use placards, signs, labels, stickers, bands, twist ties, or pin tags. What matters is that a shopper standing at the display can identify the country of origin before buying.⁶

Some shortcuts aren’t allowed. Labels cannot use “or,” “and/or,” or “may contain,” because those phrases signal that the retailer doesn’t actually know the origin. Regional phrases like “locally grown” don’t work either, because they name no country.⁷

Recordkeeping

Country of origin labeling creates a paper trail that runs from supplier to shelf. Suppliers must give retailers documentation of origin (and, for seafood, production method) for every covered commodity. Retailers must accurately carry that information onto point-of-sale labels. All records must be kept for at least one year.⁷

Most compliance problems trace back to this handoff: a supplier record that omits origin, or a retailer label that doesn’t match what the supplier reported.

Voluntary “Made in USA” Claims

Products outside mandatory COOL can still carry origin claims voluntarily, and the FTC governs those. The Made in USA Labeling Rule at 16 CFR Part 323 sets a high bar: an unqualified “Made in USA” claim on a label requires that the product be “all or virtually all” made domestically.⁸

That means final assembly and all significant processing occurred in the United States and the product contains no more than a negligible amount of foreign content. Salsa blended and bottled here from imported tomatoes doesn’t qualify. When a product falls short, the claim has to be qualified with language that tells the consumer what’s actually domestic, such as “Assembled in USA with imported components” or “Made in USA from domestic and imported ingredients.”

Voluntary “Product of USA” on Meat and Poultry

Even though beef and pork left mandatory COOL, producers still label their meat with voluntary origin claims. For years, “Product of USA” could legally appear on meat from animals born and raised overseas but slaughtered domestically. An FSIS final rule effective January 1, 2026 closes that gap.⁹

Under the new rule, a single-ingredient meat or poultry product can carry “Product of USA” or “Made in the USA” only if the animal was born, raised, slaughtered, and processed entirely in the United States. Multi-ingredient products must meet that same standard for all FSIS-regulated ingredients, and every other ingredient except spices and flavorings must also be of domestic origin.

Producers who can’t meet the full standard may still use narrower factual claims that describe which specific steps happened in the United States, like “sliced and packaged in the United States” or “made with chicken born and raised in the United States.” Vague phrases like “processed in the United States” or “manufactured in the United States” are treated as too broad. A U.S. flag on the package is allowed, but if the product doesn’t meet the full “Product of USA” threshold, the flag must sit alongside a specific description of the domestic production steps.⁹

Import Marking Is a Separate Requirement

Customs law is its own layer, distinct from COOL and the FTC’s Made in USA rules. Federal law requires nearly every article of foreign origin imported into the United States to be marked with its country of origin. The marking has to be in English, conspicuous, and permanent enough to reach the final buyer.¹⁰

This applies broadly to imported goods, not only food. Failing to properly mark an imported article triggers an added duty of 10 percent of the item’s value. Intentionally removing or concealing required origin markings is a criminal offense, with fines up to $100,000 for a first conviction and $250,000 for subsequent offenses, plus up to a year in prison.¹⁰

Penalties

COOL enforcement begins with a warning. When the Agricultural Marketing Service finds a violation, the retailer or supplier gets a notice and 30 days to fix it. Monetary penalties only apply if the violation was willful and continues past that window. From there, USDA can impose fines of up to $1,000 per violation after notice and an opportunity for a hearing.¹¹

The $1,000 figure looks small in isolation, but it runs per violation, and a single store audit can produce many individual findings. The larger exposure often sits on the FTC side. False or misleading voluntary “Made in USA” claims carry civil penalties of up to $53,088 per occurrence under the current inflation-adjusted schedule.¹²

Reporting a Suspected Violation

Anyone who suspects a retailer isn’t properly labeling covered commodities can file a complaint with the USDA’s Food Disclosure and Labeling Division. The identity of the person filing is kept confidential by law.¹³

A useful complaint includes the product name and brand, the store name and location, the date, a photo if you have one, and a description of what looked wrong. Complaints can be submitted through USDA’s online COOL complaints portal or mailed to the Food Disclosure and Labeling Division at USDA headquarters in Washington, D.C. Contact information is optional, but without it the agency has no way to follow up with you.¹³

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 7 USC 1638 – Definitions
2
Federal Register. Removal of Mandatory Country of Origin Labeling Requirements for Beef and Pork Muscle Cuts, Ground Beef, and Ground Pork
3
Agricultural Marketing Service. Country of Origin Labeling Frequently Asked Questions
4
Agricultural Marketing Service. Country of Origin Labeling Frequently Asked Questions
5
Agricultural Marketing Service. PACA Licensing
6
Agricultural Marketing Service. Country of Origin Labeling Retailer Fact Sheet
7
United States Department of Agriculture. Country of Origin Labeling Non-Compliance Codes and Workbook
8
Federal Trade Commission. Complying with the Made in USA Standard
9
Food Safety and Inspection Service. Voluntary Labeling of FSIS-Regulated Products with U.S.-Origin Claims
10
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 19 USC 1304 – Marking of Imported Articles and Containers
11
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 7 USC 1638b – Enforcement
12
Federal Register. Adjustments to Civil Penalty Amounts
13
Agricultural Marketing Service. How to File a Complaint on the Country of Origin Labeling Regulations