Federal government classifies french fries as fresh veggies
By Andrew Martin
Washington Bureau
Posted June 15 2004
WASHINGTON ? Anyone trying to add more fruits and vegetables to their diet
may have just gotten an unlikely assist from the U.S. Department of
Agriculture. Based on a little-noticed change to obscure federal rules, the
USDA defines frozen french fries as “fresh vegetables.”
As bizarre as it may sound, a federal judge in Texas last week endorsed the
USDA’s rules in a court case, saying the term “fresh vegetables” was
ambiguous.
The USDA quietly changed the regulations last year at the behest of the
french fry industry, which has spent the past five decades pushing for a
revision to the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act (PACA). The law was
passed by Congress in 1930 to protect fruit and vegetable farmers in the
event that their customers went out of business without paying for their
produce.
The Frozen Potato Products Institute appealed to the USDA in 2000 to change
its definition of fresh produce under PACA to include batter-coated, frozen
french fries, arguing that rolling potato slices in a starch coating, frying
them and freezing them is the equivalent of waxing a cucumber or sweetening
a strawberry.
The USDA agreed and, on June 2, 2003, the agency amended its PACA rules to
include what is described in court documents as the “Batter-Coating Rule.”
Tim Elliott, a Chicago attorney who recently challenged the revision in a
Texas federal courtroom on behalf of a bankrupt food distributor, said
defining french fries as fresh vegetables defies common sense.
“I find it pretty outrageous, really,” said Elliott, who argues that the
Batter-Coating Rule is so vague that chocolate-covered cherries, packed in a
candy box, would qualify as fresh fruit. However, in a ruling released last
week, U.S. District Judge Richard Schell sided with the USDA.
The french fry rule calls to mind the USDA’s attempt in 1981 to classify
ketchup and pickle relish as vegetables, an idea that was dropped amid
public protests.
Copyright c 2004, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
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