On Nov. 8, 2023, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) announced it is clarifying that meat products it purchases for nutrition assistance programs must be from animals that are born, raised, and slaughtered in the United States to meet domestic origin requirements.
On Nov. 16, 2023, at 2 p.m. ET, AMS will host a webinar for vendors and interested stakeholders to discuss the clarification on domestic origin requirements for meat products. Interested stakeholders must register for the webinar in advance at: Webinar Registration.
AMS procures food products of domestic origin for use in nutrition assistance programs and regularly evaluates the effectiveness of its food purchase programs. Upon review, the guidelines for procuring beef, pork, lamb, and bison products were not as clear as other commodities. This clarification to the domestic origin requirement will ensure U.S. producers enjoy the full benefit of USDA purchase programs and recipients of nutrition assistance programs benefit from domestically-produced meat products.
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