The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Wednesday it hopes to weed out false or misleading animal-welfare claims on meat and poultry packaging with new guidance and testing.
The claims __ such as “pasture-raised,” “humanely raised,” and “raised without antibiotics” __ are increasingly popular with consumers and allow producers to charge a premium. Perdue “free range” chicken breasts with no antibiotics sell for $5.78 per pound at Walmart, for example; store brand chicken breasts without those claims sell for $2.79 per pound.
