USDA reverses course, Tyson must junk 'raised without antibiotics' labels

Tyson Foods (NYSE: TSN) will be grumbling a bit this week after spending the summer revising labels for its poultry products. Previously, the USDA said the chicken giant could label its chicken products "raised without antibiotics." Now the U.S. Department of Agriculture says that decision was in error.

So, instead of enlightening Tyson customers with a more natural marketing message for its fresh chicken products, the campaign introduced this summer will now be canceled and the labels will be pulled off those products.

According to the USDA, a food additive called ionophores is indeed fed to Tyson's chickens before they are processed. The USDA has classified ionophores as antibiotics before and said it would not change its policy, much to the chagrin of Tyson marketing executives.

However, Tyson executives say that ionophores are not antibiotics and that the FDA does not consider them to be antibiotics either. Who will win out here? If it's the USDA, then Tyson just wasted quite a bit of marketing money to tell customers something that wasn't true. Well, according to the USDA at least.