By John DeFore

Activists and alert shoppers have plenty of bones to pick with the way groceries are labeled and the way environmental or nutrition claims are monitored, or not, by the government. Yesterday, Tyson Foods announced that it is removing its “Raised Without Antibiotics” label from chicken, and has gone on record asking the USDA to clarify the rules for such labels in advertising.

The Arkansas-based company, the world’s largest poultry producer, had been using various forms of the label since it was approved by the USDA in May 2007. Initially reading simply “Raised Without Antibiotics,” the claim was modified last December to the cumbersome “Chicken Raised Without Antibiotics That Impact Antibiotic Resistance in Humans.” But legal action from competing companies and threats of a class-action consumer lawsuit eventually led to this week’s events, with Tyson making its announcement just as the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) moved to rescind its approval of the label.

Part of the issue has to do with a practice that Tyson says is “used by most of the U.S. broiler industry,” in which eggs are vaccinated before they hatch. Tyson’s position is that a chicken vaccinated before hatching has still been “raised” without antibiotics; competitors felt it was a misleading claim that gave the chicken giant an unfair marketing advantage.

One thing everyone seems to agree on is that clearer guidelines are needed. A vice president at Tyson, Dave Hogberg, put it this way in an official announcement: “We still support the idea of marketing chicken raised without antibiotics because we know it’s what most consumers want. However . . . we believe there needs to be more specific labeling and advertising protocols developed to ensure the rules are clear and application of the rules is equitable.”

The government already has admitted as much. According to a statement by FSIS Under Secretary for Food Safety Dr. Richard Raymond: “On May 23, FSIS notified Tyson Foods Inc. that FSIS, along with the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service, will initiate a public process to review policies on ‘Raised without Antibiotics’ claims for poultry. To ensure that this process is equitable, FSIS will review any claim relating to the use of antibiotics in poultry that it has already approved for companies other than Tyson Foods, Inc.”

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