Food-label rules in effect today

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Born in the USA? Made in Mexico? Picked in Peru? Cultivated in Canada?

Supermarket shoppers, now you know.

Starting today, new federal rules take effect requiring all U.S. supermarkets and large food retailers to provide labels telling consumers which country a wide variety of food came from.

Covered by the new rules: ground beef, chicken, pork, veal, steak, lamb and goat, along with fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables, macadamia nuts, pecans and peanuts.

Although there are some loopholes — for instance, "processed foods" such as bacon aren't covered — consumer groups say the labels will allow shoppers to bypass foods whose countries have poor hygiene records, or to deliberately help American farmers and ranchers.

Retailers can comply with labels on meat packages, twist ties on asparagus, stickers on apples — it doesn't matter. They simply must say where the food came from or face fines up to $1,000.

"People really want to know, 'What the heck am I eating?' " said Naomi Starkman, one of the organizers of the Slow Food Nation conference in San Francisco this month, which, among other things, encouraged people to eat locally produced food.

"If you know that peppers from Mexico might have salmonella, then maybe you would say, 'I want to buy peppers from California.' Or maybe you would want to know that your food has a smaller carbon footprint. You can buy apples from Washington instead of New Zealand."

Labels will be another tool to help investigators quickly track down the source of tainted food during illness outbreaks.