Meat Safety

In an editorial titled, "Is the meat you buy safe enough?" that appears online at the Eco-Logic Powerhouse website, Henry Lamb evaluates the state of the meat industry and USDA's role in it.  He reviews the recent E. coli outbreaks linked to meat produced at Topps and Cargill, and poses the question, "Every package of this contaminated meat contained a USDA inspection seal. Why did the USDA inspection fail to discover this contamination before it was shipped to stores across the nation?"

Mr. Lamb analyzes what in his view is the inadequacy of the current USDA inspection system and discusses USDA's current efforts to implement an animal tracking system - which he believes is completely unnecessary:

How can this inspection deficiency be corrected? Will it take more inspectors? Will it take new procedures? Whatever it takes, American consumers expect the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service to do whatever is necessary to assure that the meat that reaches the grocery store is safe.

In view of these two most recent recalls, it would seem that the USDA would be extremely embarrassed, and working on a crash program to improve their food safety procedures. Apparently, the USDA has higher priorities.

There is far more interest and effort at the USDA to get every property where any one of 29 species of livestock animals reside, registered into a federally controlled database. What does this effort have to do with preventing contamination in the meat processing plant?

Mr. Lamb addresses the argument that irradiation will make food safer, and counters with the argument that if food irradiation is implemented there will be less pressure on slaughterhouses to prevent contamination.

And as to the question of why the average American should care about meat safety, Mr. Lamb concludes, "It matters not how safe the USDA system might be, if you are among those who fall ill as the result of inadequate USDA inspection procedures. To these people, the system is obviously not safe enough."

NACMPI to meet on meat and poultry inspections

FSIS announced today that the National Advisory Committee on Meat and Poultry Inspection (NACMPI) will hold public meetings to discuss issues related to how data is handled and public health-based inspection.  FSIS has set the schedule as follows:

The full committee will meet from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Wednesday, August 8, and from 8:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Thursday, August 9. Subcommittees will meet from 2 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, August 8. All committee meetings will be held at George Mason University, School of Public Policy, Arlington Original Building, 3401 Fairfax Drive, Arlington, Virginia 22201. Directions to the site and the agenda will be posted on the FSIS Web site at http://www.fsis.usda.gov/News_&_Events/
Meetings_&_Events/index.asp
.

This spring, millions of pounds of ground beef and other meat products were recalled due to E. coli contamination.  In several instances, the recalled meat was identified as the source of E. coli outbreaks.  As Bill Marler said, "E. coli is Baaaaaack in Red Meat"

The National Advisory Committee on Meat and Poultry Inspection (NACMPI) advises the Secretary of Agriculture on matters affecting federal and state inspection program activities, and will address the following at the meeting:

  • Data Collection and Analysis at FSIS: Standard Operating Procedures;
  • Technical Plan for Public Health Based Inspection; and
  • Pilot Project to Explore Mechanisms for Sharing Industry Data with FSIS.

New 'virtual' inspection for meat plants proposed

Dr. Richard Raymond, former Nebraska Chief Medical Officer and current USDA Undersecretary for Food Safety, proposed a system of "virtual" meat inspections, with a focus on more frequent inspections at meat plants with poor safety records, according to an article in the Omaha World-Herald (registration required).

Currently the system works like this:

Inspectors are assigned to a specific facility or to regularly patrol several smaller plants.

An automated system spits out a schedule of the inspectors' weekly tasks -- ensuring that a plant is clean, checking the temperature of its ovens and refrigerators and reviewing its anti-contamination measures.

If significant problems develop at a particular plant, additional inspections can be done. But on a day-to-day basis, the system aims to create a uniform level of inspection without regard to a facility's history or the safety measures it uses.

Under the proposed risk-based system, plants would receive a risk rating based on the types of products they handle, safety measures they have in place and their track records.

Plants deemed to present a high risk would receive more intensive inspections while those with low risk would receive more cursory examinations.

The new system proposed by Dr. Raymond is controversial, and consumer groups like the Consumer Federation of America are encouraging the USDA to conduct a pilot study of the new inspection system before fully implementing it.