Canada and the United States agree to use the same terms for wholesale meat cuts

Monday, February 24, 2014

by SUSAN MANN

Canada’s and the United State’s harmonization of wholesale meat-cut terms is a step in the right direction and shows the two countries are making progress in ensuring a more complete integration of the North American beef industry, says Rob McNabb, general manager of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency announced Monday the two countries’ agreement to harmonize wholesale meat-cut terminology would reduce the costs of maintaining separate inventories for the two countries, ease trade, plus reduce red tape and regulatory burden.

As of Monday, selected meat-cut names, including chicken breast fillets, beef hip and lamb leg and chops, can be used interchangeably with their U.S. equivalents, CFIA says in its Feb. 24 press release. The full list of eligible names that can be used interchangeably with American equivalents are outlined in CFIA’s Meat Cuts Manual and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Institutional Meat Purchase Specifications document.

The agreement doesn’t affect food safety and has minimal impact on consumers “as it only applies to wholesale cuts of meat,” CFIA says.

McNabb says the move affects packers plus importers/exporters of beef products but “it doesn’t necessarily have a direct trickle-down effect to cattle producers.”

Harmonizing meat-cut terms is a small piece of the work that needs to be done to integrate the North American beef industry, McNabb notes. There is a list of other items that still need to be worked out between the two countries, such as mandatory Country of Origin Labelling in the United States. “There are other things that are important to move products, animals and inputs between Canada and the United States,” he says.

CFIA says the work to harmonize the meat-cut terms is part of the Canada-United States Regulatory Cooperation Council Action Plan announced by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and President Barack Obama in December 2011. The goal of the plan is to better align the two countries’ regulatory systems to reduce costs to manufacturers, producers and consumers, and to boost North American trade and competitiveness, CFIA says. BF