010227 Gov't Moving Forward With Meat Rule

Washington - The Agriculture Department is moving forward with new microbial testing requirements for meat processors that were proposed in the Clinton administration's last days, then put on hold by the incoming Bush administration.

The rules would require makers of hot dogs, cold cuts and other ready-to-eat meat products to test plant equipment regularly for Listeria monocytogenes and allow the government to look at company records.

But Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman said that her agency would release the rules for public comment “in a matter of days.”

The department announced the rules on Jan. 19, President Clinton's last full day in office, but they never ever published. So the Bush administration could have killed the proposals by leaving them on hold indefinitely or could have altered them significantly before publishing them and seeking public comment.

The department could still change the rules after they are released for public comment. Any changes before then are likely to be small, Veneman said.

“We could make some alterations. Obviously, since we're going to do it in short order it wouldn't be much,” she said.

Listeria contamination kills an estimated 500 people and causes 2,300 serious illnesses each year. The new standards were among a series of last-minute regulations put on hold by the White House when President Bush was inaugurated Jan. 20 so his administration could review them.

“It's great news that the secretary said that this was a priority,” said Caroline Smith DeWaal, director of food safety for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer advocacy group.

The listeria rules are “a good test case for the administration on its food safety policy. If they had sat on it, they would be headed for a failing grade,” she said.

The National Food Processors Association, which represents companies such as Kraft, Hormel, and Campbell's, has not taken a position on the rules. But the industry group is concerned they may require testing of products such as canned soups that the industry does not think pose a significant risk for microbial contamination.

“You're looking at a huge amount of proposed ruling on a vast array of products,” said Rhona Applebaum, who monitors regulations for the association.

The department has estimated that listeria testing will cost meat processors $12 million a year initially, less beyond that.

In December, at least four deaths and three miscarriages or stillbirths were linked to listeria-contaminated poultry products, federal health officials said. An outbreak in 1998 killed 15 people and sickened at least 100.

Veneman also Wednesday announced her first personnel move since taking office, naming Dale Moore, a lobbyist for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, as her chief of staff.

While the industry is not subsidized by the Agriculture Department, it has an interest in many regulatory issues before the agency, and one of its top issues now is keeping mad cow disease out of the United States.

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