020123 GAO: Checks May Not Make Meat Safe

Washington - The government plans to go forward with an experimental meat inspection system despite test results that showed some plants had more problems with contaminated products than before.

Under the new system, federal inspectors no longer do hand checks of carcasses, leaving that job to company employees. The inspectors are supposed to spend more time monitoring plant sanitation equipment, overseeing plant workers and sampling products for contamination.

Five of 11 chicken processing plants participating in the program had higher rates of salmonella contamination than they had before, according to a report by the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress.

Test results also showed higher rates of defects such as bruises on chickens produced by many of the 11 plants, GAO said, disputing assertions by the Agriculture Department that the program had resulted in safer products.

Agriculture Department officials said Wednesday that they won't make the system mandatory but plan to expand it to new facilities on a voluntary basis. Last year, the department said the system had worked so well that they would expand it to all 200 poultry processors nationwide.

“This is an improved system, but it depends on a lot of things, including plant commitment,” said Margaret Glavin, acting administrator of USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service.

Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, said USDA's decision to continue the project “makes no sense” and “is a recipe for a food safety disaster.” Harkin requested the GAO study along with the panel's ranking Republican, Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana.

Consumer Federation of America, a leading advocacy group on food- safety issues, withdrew its support for the project, citing the GAO findings.

“The only reason for the administration to go forward after the GAO report is to give in to the poultry industry's pressure to run their production lines faster. Faster line speeds results in more fecal material on poultry,” said the federation's Carol Tucker Foreman, who oversaw USDA's food safety programs during the Carter administration.

Data collected by an independent testing firm showed that fecal material, which can carry dangerous bacteria, continued to show up on chicken in 10 of the 11 plants using the new inspection system, GAO said.

As many as seven of the 11 plants had higher rates of some quality defects, problems such as bruises and stray feathers, that pose no health hazard, the report said.

Data gathered by USDA found somewhat better results. Even so, the testing that has been done so far does not prove that the “modified inspections are at least equal to traditional inspections,” which was USDA's criteria for going forward with the program, GAO said.

The department started the project in 1999 and is now operating the new inspection system in 25 plants that slaughter chickens, turkeys and hogs.

The inspectors union has been fighting the project in court, saying that the traditional system is better, but GAO found broad support for the experimental system among rank-and-file inspectors.

Seventy-one percent of USDA inspectors and veterinarians surveyed by GAO said that products were as safe or safer under the new system. Some of the inspectors said they have more time to oversee the slaughter lines and collect carcass samples than previously, the report said.

USDA officials said they decided to keep the program voluntary partly for fear that standards might slip in plants that weren't willing to put the time and money into making improvements.

The new system was supposed to appeal to processors who wanted to have more control how their plants are run.

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