August 6, 2025

Is It Time For the USDA to Level the Playing Field for Red Meat?

The FDA is currently reviewing and eliminating more than 50 outdated or obsolete Standards of Identity—a move that signals a growing awareness that food regulations must evolve with the marketplace. It's a step toward modernizing policy to better reflect how consumers eat, how companies innovate, and how today’s food systems actually work.

This shift raises an important question: Should the USDA be taking similar steps—especially when it comes to red meat?

For too long, labeling requirements and usage-level standards have created disparities between red meat and other proteins like poultry. Many of these rules, written decades ago, limit flexibility in formulation, product development, and labeling—often in ways that no longer align with modern food production or consumer preferences. Over the past few decades, consumer expectations, cooking methods, kitchen appliances, and processing capabilities have changed dramatically—yet the regulatory framework for red meat remains largely unchanged. In fact, most of these standards were established in the 1970s and 1980s.

By comparison, poultry products have long benefited from more adaptable standards. This imbalance is more than a technicality—it directly affects innovation, product variety, and market competitiveness for red meat. The inconsistency can hinder progress toward meeting consumer demands for lower sodium, clean labels, plant-forward blends and more.

As the FDA takes bold steps toward regulatory modernization, it presents a unique opportunity for the USDA to do the same: to review and update its standards in a way that results in fair competition while still upholding food safety and transparency.

At BRANDformula, we help bring these differences into focus. Through detailed formulas, product samples, and direct comparisons between red meat and other proteins, we demonstrate how current standards create unnecessary barriers—and how updating them could unlock new opportunities for product development and market growth.

We believe the time is right for this conversation. If you're interested in engaging, collaborating, or simply sharing perspectives, we’d welcome the opportunity to connect.