APHIS proposes lowering the carcass maturation floor to 2°C for beef from FMD-affected South American regions

The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) proposed on Oct. 20 to let fresh boneless beef from South American regions affected with foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) mature at a lower temperature before deboning: 2°C (35.6°F) instead of the 4°C (40°F) floor in place now^[1]. The change would also cover sheep meat from Uruguay^[1]. Comments are due Dec. 21, 2026^[1].

The agency describes the proposal as a technical alignment with the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH), and says every other condition on these imports would stay as written^[1]. The temperature sits inside a set of conditions that U.S. cattle groups have long contested, and the proposal lands during a year of White House actions to bring more lean beef into the country^{[3, 5]}.

The details: one line in 9 CFR 94.29

The rule text is a single amendment. In paragraph (i) of 9 CFR 94.29, APHIS would strike “40 to 50 °F (4 to 10 °C)” and insert “35.6 to 50 °F (2 to 10 °C)”^[1]. APHIS Administrator Kelly Moore signed the notice Oct. 15, and it carries Docket No. APHIS-2023-0016 and RIN 0579-AE83^[1].

Section 94.29 is the exception that lets certain FMD-affected regions ship fresh (chilled or frozen) boneless beef at all. The general rule in § 94.1 bars fresh ruminant and swine meat from regions where FMD exists^[1]. The listed exceptions are Patagonia North A in northern Argentina; the Brazilian states of Bahia, Distrito Federal, Espírito Santo, Goiás, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Minas Gerais, Paraná, Rio Grande do Sul, Rio de Janeiro, Rondônia, São Paulo, Sergipe and Tocantins; Paraguay; and Uruguay, which may also ship ovine meat^[1].

The conditions those shipments must meet, all of which APHIS says stay in force^[1]:

• Cattle or sheep born, raised and slaughtered in the exporting region, with no FMD diagnosis there in the previous 12 months.
• Animals from premises where FMD was never present during their lifetimes, moved directly to slaughter without contact with other animals.
• Ante-mortem and post-mortem inspection with attention to the head and feet. Heads, feet, humps, hooves and internal organs cannot be shipped.
• Removal of all bone and visible blood clots and lymphoid tissue, with a limited exception for Uruguayan sheep meat.
• Carcass maturation for at least 24 hours after slaughter, reaching a pH below 6.0 in the middle of both longissimus dorsi muscles. A carcass that misses gets one more 24-hour period and a retest; after 48 hours, a failing carcass cannot be exported to the U.S.
• Certification by an official veterinarian of the exporting government, and periodic on-site APHIS evaluation of the slaughter plant.

Maturation and pH do disease-control work. When APHIS finalized Paraguay’s access in 2023, it described the maturation and deboning steps as the mitigations “specifically intended to denature FMD or remove FMD risk”^[2].

Why is APHIS changing the beef maturation temperature?

APHIS says the 4°C floor is stricter than the international standard. WOAH Terrestrial Code articles 8.8.24 (beef) and 8.8.26 (sheep and goat meat) recommend maturation above 2°C for at least 24 hours, with pH below 6.0 in both loin muscles, according to the notice^[1]. “The current minimum maturation temperature does not align with international standards,” APHIS writes^[1]. Commodity Hill’s September report on APHIS’s proposed 28-day wait for bird flu imports covered another proposal in which the agency cited WOAH guidance.

The agency does not claim the current rule has held trade back. In its economic summary, it says there is “no evidence that the existing minimum maturation temperature is functioning as a barrier to trade,” and that the proposal “would not grant new market access for any countries or regions”^[1]. APHIS determined the rule is not significant under Executive Order 12866, so the Office of Management and Budget did not review it^[1].

In the field: lean trimmings, cow-calf and lamb

Ground beef supply. APHIS’s analysis leans on how the U.S. beef market is built. Corn-fed cattle produce fewer lean trimmings than ground beef demand requires, and by some estimates 50 to 55 percent of beef eaten in the U.S. is consumed in ground form, the notice says^[1]. Imported lean trimmings come largely from the countries this rule covers, along with Australia and New Zealand^[1]. U.S. beef consumption was about 29 billion pounds in 2024^[1].

Cow-calf and feedlots. APHIS lists beef cattle ranching, feedlots, sheep farming, slaughter and processing, and meat importing and wholesaling as the businesses that could be affected, and says most are small entities^[1]. To put numbers on a case it does not expect, APHIS modeled 500 to 5,000 additional metric tons of beef imports from the affected countries. In both scenarios, it found consumer gains outweighing producer losses, for a net benefit of $192,000 to $1.92 million^[1]. APHIS also says it does not have all the data it needs for a full small-business analysis and asks commenters to supply it^[1].

Sheep. Uruguay supplies less than 1 percent of U.S. lamb and mutton imports^[1]. Over the past five years, the U.S. produced an average of 139 million pounds of lamb and mutton and imported an average of 335 million pounds^[1]. APHIS expects no change in Uruguayan lamb trade from the proposal^[1].

The import picture this fall. The proposal arrives while extra tariff-rate quota volume is open for lean beef trimmings. An Aug. 26 proclamation raised the in-quota amount for lean trimmings by 300,000 metric tons, after a February proclamation added 80,000 metric tons for Argentina^[5]. Commodity Hill covered the cattle-group reaction to that move in its report on the Sept. 4 ranching executive orders. MercoPress reported that the 300,000 tons go to the “other countries or areas” category, which leaves out Argentina and Uruguay because they hold country-specific quotas, and makes Brazil and Paraguay the main beneficiaries^[6]. The extra volume runs in 100,000-ton monthly tranches through Nov. 30, according to MercoPress, and lifts the 26.4 percent out-of-quota duty Brazil had paid since mid-January^[6].

On the Hill: how each side has argued over South American beef

The closest recent fight over these import conditions was Paraguay, which entered the § 94.29 list in 2023 under the same requirements^[2].

The rancher case. When APHIS proposed fresh beef imports from Paraguay in 2023, R-CALF USA asked the agency to withdraw the plan. The group said it would create “an unnecessary and avoidable risk of introducing FMD into the United States” and would hurt U.S. cattle producers^[3]. “Several times since 1997 APHIS had underestimated the risk for the reemergence of the disease in countries that are not free of FMD,” R-CALF CEO Bill Bullard said, adding, “the agency was dead wrong about the risks in Uruguay, Argentina, South Africa, South Korea and Japan”^[3]. Other commenters questioned site visits that dated to 2008 and 2014^[2].

In the Senate, Sen. Jon Tester, joined by Sen. Mike Rounds, introduced S.J. Res. 62 on Feb. 26, 2024, a resolution under chapter 8 of title 5 of the U.S. Code to disapprove the Paraguay rule^[4]. The Senate passed it on March 21, 2024^[4]. Paraguay remains on the § 94.29 list in this proposal^[1].

The agency and import case. APHIS answered in its 2023 final rule that its risk-based approach “is demonstrated by the continued FMD freedom of the United States,” and that outbreaks in the countries critics cited were caught quickly and met with fast U.S. import restrictions^[2]. Thirty-two of the 152 commenters on the Paraguay proposal were generally supportive^[2]. The case for more imported lean beef now comes from the White House: the Aug. 26 proclamation points to a national herd at its lowest level in 75 years and a USDA forecast that beef output falls about 4 percent from 2025^[5]. It warns the President “may end the action” if imported ground beef does not sell at a lower price, “to, among other things, prevent a windfall to foreign producers”^[5]. In Brazil, the exporters’ association Abiec said its members could benefit from the extra quota, though a required discount of around 25 percent limits the margin gain, according to MercoPress^[6].

What to watch

Comments on Docket No. APHIS-2023-0016 close Dec. 21, 2026, through regulations.gov or by mail to APHIS’s Regulatory Analysis and Development office in Beltsville, Md.^[1]. APHIS has asked specifically for data on how the change would affect small businesses^[1]. The lean-trimmings quota expansion runs until Nov. 30, according to MercoPress, three weeks before the comment period closes^[6].