WASHINGTON, D.C. — One item on the holiday wish list of some consumer and food safety advocates is the USDA approving a rule that requires mechanically tenderized beef cuts to be labeled as such.

But as advocate groups mounted a final effort to enact the rule, the agency’s decision remains uncertain. The Safe Food Coalition, eight consumer and food safety advocacy groups, urged Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to finalize the rule in a letter dated Nov. 17.

“Higher risk products, like mechanically tenderized beef, need more oversight with clear standards, not less,” the letter stated.

Groups signing the letter included the Center for Foodborne Illness Research & Prevention, Center for Science in the Public Interest, Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, Food and Water Watch, Government Accountability Project, National Consumer League and STOP Foodborne Illness.

The label change, under the jurisdiction of the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), would need to be enacted by Dec. 31. Otherwise, under internal USDA meat labeling rules, changes could not occur until 2018.

Mechanical tenderization happens when sharp blades are inserted into meat cuts to break muscle and connective tissue, according to the American Meat Institute (AMI), which has opposed the proposed label change. This creates more tenderness, a quality desired by consumers.

According to the AMI, mechanically tenderized meats have a “very good safety record,” with illness outbreaks occurring only in mechanically tenderized meats that were further processed, like marinated meats.

U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), a longtime advocate for food safety standards, urges Vilsack to finalize the label, which she said has been under consideration for six years. DeLauro said because the USDA recommends a higher cooking temperature for “non-intact” meat products, like mechanically tenderized beef, such products should be distinctly labeled.

“Without accurate and complete labels on these products, we are not providing consumers with the information they truly need to follow safe preparation practices,” she said.

USDA-funded research conducted at Auburn University from 2008-12 concluded there is a small potential for bacterial contamination from mechanical tenderizers. But it is not clear whether labeling products as “mechanically tenderized” in the product name would keep consumers safer.

In comments on the proposed rule, meat industry interests insist the industry takes adequate steps to guard against contamination without the proposed labeling, which would require product names to include the mechanically tenderized distinction. “Conveying the fact that a product has been subject to mechanical tenderization, and therefore consumers should prepare the product differently than if it is intact, can be accomplished just as easily through means other than requiring that term’s inclusion in the product name,” stated AMI, in comments submitted to the USDA.

Proponents of increased labeling point to new requirements in Canada, which in August began requiring new labels and cooking instructions for mechanically tenderized beef. That was prompted when several people fell ill after eating mechanically tenderized steaks in 2012.

In comments about the issue, both consumer and industry groups appear to agree, to some extent, that all meat needs to include proper cooking instructions. Many mechanically tenderized cuts are used in foodservice settings, however, said comments on the rule from the meat industry.

It is the latest in a string of disagreements between industry and advocacy groups about potential regulatory changes and impacts on food safety. Last month, the USDA/FSIS released updated rules for poultry inspection that will likely result in inspectors focusing their efforts on processing plant procedures and compliance, rather than in-person inspection on poultry processing lines.

The Safe Food Coalition issued a letter this summer outlining their concerns with possible impacts of the poultry inspection changes for food safety.