Coffee: how the label tells you if it is Puerto Rican or foreign

It is Puerto Rico’s coffee labeling law, and for a shopper it works as a checklist in the supermarket aisle. It sets what the label must say, in what order and — this is the useful part — at what minimum letter size, so the word “foreign” cannot hide in small type under a large brand name.

Any consumer who buys coffee in Puerto Rico. Those bound are anyone who roasts, grinds or processes coffee in Puerto Rico and anyone who markets coffee on the island, including coffee grown or processed elsewhere.

• That it be coffee roasted, ground or processed in any form in Puerto Rico, or coffee marketed in Puerto Rico having been grown or processed elsewhere.Verified against the official source

Information pending verification.

1. 1

   Step 1: First: who processed it

   The container of all coffee roasted, ground or processed in any form in Puerto Rico must state on its label the name and address of the person or entity that roasted, ground or processed it. If that information is missing, the label already breaches the law’s first section.

2. 2

   Step 2: The word “foreign” has a minimum size

   This is what makes the law checkable at a glance. Where the coffee was imported to be processed in Puerto Rico, the container’s label must specify that it is foreign coffee, “in letters no less than a quarter (¼) inch tall and immediately below those stating the name and address” of whoever processed it. Minimum size and fixed position.

3. 3

   Step 3: Coffee from here, processed there

   It is prohibited to market in Puerto Rico coffee labeled as Puerto Rican if that coffee was grown here but processed, in any form, outside Puerto Rico, unless the label states it is from Puerto Rico and states — in letters no less than a quarter inch and immediately below — that it was processed outside, specifying the place and the name and address of whoever processed it.

4. 4

   Step 4: Coffee from elsewhere, processed elsewhere

   It is prohibited to market in Puerto Rico coffee of any origin, grown and processed outside Puerto Rico, unless the container’s label states that such coffee is foreign, specifying where it was grown and processed, immediately after the name and address of whoever processed it, in letters no less than a quarter inch tall.

5. 5

   Step 5: The rule against disguise

   It is the text’s strongest rule and the one most visible on the shelf: where any coffee, whether processed inside or outside Puerto Rico, was not made entirely from coffee grown in Puerto Rico, it is prohibited to use on its label any design, map, symbol, representation, name, allusion, initials, abbreviation, letters, word or set of words that could associate it with Puerto Rico or with a Puerto Rican product, or make the consumer believe that coffee is from Puerto Rico, or establish similarity with Puerto Rican coffee or with the Puerto Rican coffee consumer’s preferences.

6. 6

   Step 6: And in the ads

   Every advertisement published or broadcast by any medium for any coffee processed outside Puerto Rico must specify the coffee’s origin and where it was processed. If the ad is written or printed, that specification must appear in type of the same kind and size as that stating the product’s brand, but in no case smaller than a quarter inch tall.

7. 7

   Step 7: “Fino” and “Specialty” are not free adjectives

   The law reserves those names. It is prohibited to market, inside or outside Puerto Rico, coffee labeled “Fino” or “Specialty” as primary names, and “Gourmet,” “Especial” or “State” as secondary — or any other name that in future becomes generalized with a similar meaning — unless the conditions the law describes for Class 1 are met: grain-size parameters, cup characteristics (a distinctive attribute in flavor, acidity, body or aroma, and free of cup faults and defects), roast with no empty or green beans, moisture content of nine (9) to thirteen (13) percent, and lists of primary and secondary defects, plus being free of all foreign matter and odor. Those specifications must be certified by a bonafide coffee cupping laboratory recognized by the Secretary of Agriculture.

8. 8

   Step 8: What happens to a mislabeled product

   Any product in violation may not be marketed in Puerto Rico: it shall be detained or seized and tagged with an appropriate label or mark giving notice that it is falsely labeled and has been detained or seized, warning that it may not be removed or disposed of by sale or otherwise until the order is lifted when the labeling is corrected, or until a court orders otherwise. The violation is a misdemeanor: imprisonment for a term not exceeding three (3) months or a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars ($500), or both; on repeat, imprisonment not exceeding one year or a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars ($1,000), or both.

The Secretary of Agriculture of Puerto Rico and Department of Agriculture staff oversee faithful compliance with this law, and it is the Secretary who regulates the classification parameters for “Fino” or “Specialty” coffee. If your matter is deceptive advertising of a product other than coffee or a general consumer claim, that route is the DACO complaint.

• Trusting the flag or landscape on the package: if the coffee is not entirely Puerto Rican, those symbols are prohibited.
• Not looking for the name and address of whoever processed it: it is the law’s first requirement.
• Accepting the word “foreign” in tiny type: it must be no less than a quarter inch tall.
• Ignoring position: the law requires it immediately below or immediately after, depending on the case.
• Believing “Gourmet” or “Especial” are free adjectives: the law reserves them as secondary names subject to conditions.
• Thinking the law judges taste: it regulates labeling and advertising, not your experience in the cup.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Departamento de Agricultura de Puerto Rico

  Agricultura

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov

• Department of Agriculture

  Departamento de Agricultura

  www.agricultura.pr.gov