Washington - The Agriculture Department could effectively close meat and poultry plants that do not properly test for E. coli bacteria and fail to adequately reduce salmonella microbes under new proposed rules.
The plan would allow federal inspectors to be withdrawn from slaughterhouses and processing plants if those food safety goals are not met. Withdrawal of the USDA stamp of approval essentially prevents a company from marketing any meat or poultry.
Inspectors can be withdrawn under current rules for several reasons, including unsanitary conditions and inhumane slaughtering of livestock, but never before has failure to address bacterial contamination been specifically among them.
Thomas J. Billy, administrator of the department's Food Safety and Inspection Service, said the updated rules are part of a new meat and poultry inspection system aimed at preventing contamination by requiring companies to test for E. coli and reduce the presence of salmonella.
"The existing rules obviously didn't address those," Billy said in an interview Monday.
One virulent strain of E. coli and many types of salmonella can cause illness and even death in humans who eat contaminated food. The Agriculture Department has aimed its new system at controlling those two pathogens, but there are others that cause foodborne illness.
Although the rules would grant new authority to withdraw inspectors, industry officials said at first glance they did not appear to expand the department's enforcement powers beyond what was expected when the new inspection system was first proposed.
"We will be looking to see that there is not an expansion of enforcement power or a taking away of basic industry rights," said Tim Willard, spokesman for the National Food Processors Association. "There have been no problems identified with industry compliance."
Indeed, Billy said that inspectors have been withdrawn from the 6,400 plants regulated by the Agriculture Department on only two occasions in just over a year's time.
"It really is the exception," he said.
The industry has complained, however, that the new rules might not afford plants adequate notice of a possible shutdown in cases when public health is not in imminent danger. Billy said in a letter Monday to several industry groups that the rules will include "detailed notice" and methods of appeal.
"We are mindful of the need to protect the rights of regulated businesses and individuals," he said.
The department will take public comment on the rules through March 13.
The new inspection system -- known as Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point, or HACCP -- goes into effect for the 312 largest meat and poultry plants Jan. 26. These plants account for 75 percent of the livestock slaughtered and 50 percent of processed meat and poultry each year.
HACCP will be phased in for smaller plants over the next two years. It changes meat and poultry inspection from the old sight, smell and touch system to one based on prevention that requires detailed record-keeping by companies.
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