010237 USDA Reinstates Meat Testing Rules

Washington - The Agriculture Department released proposed new meat- testing requirements issued in the final days of the Clinton presidency but put on hold immediately after the Bush administration took over.

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 inspect company records.

The Agriculture Department said it will take public comment on the rules for 90 days after they are published in the Federal Register. USDA also plans to hold public meetings to discuss the scientific issues behind the proposed regulations.

No significant changes were made in the rules that the Clinton administration proposed, said Kevin Herglotz, a spokesman for Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman.

Carol Tucker Foreman, director of the Consumer Federation of America's Food Policy Institute, called the rules “important and long overdue.”

Veneman “has earned the trust of the consumer community with this action,” Foreman said.

A group representing the meat industry said USDA should have waited to release the rules until it finalized an assessment of the potential risks from listeria.

“If the government's final risk assessment suggests that any new regulatory actions should be taken, such as microbiological testing, then we believe such actions should be applied evenly across the ready- to-eat food industry,” said J. Patrick Boyle, president of the American Meat Institute.

The meat 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.

The department announced the rules on Jan. 19, President Clinton's last full day in office, but they were not published in the Federal Register. The Bush administration could have killed them by leaving the proposals on hold indefinitely.

Listeria contamination kills about 500 people and causes 2,300 serious illnesses each year. Pregnant women, the elderly and people with suppressed immune systems are most at risk.

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