The Government Accountability Office has released a new report that states the FDA and USDA should strengthen their pesticide residue monitoring programs and disclose the limitations of their systems. The most recent data from 2008 through 2012 shows that residue in 10 selected fruits and vegetables is low, but the monitoring approach has limitations. GAO … Read more
Food & Water Watch is asking the USDA’s Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) to revoke the recognition of privatized inspection practices used in several countries that export red meat to the U.S. Those countries are Canada, Australia, and New Zealand; government officials there have replaced government meat inspectors with company employees. A petition was filed … Read more
Tony Corbo of Food & Water Watch states that the USDA is “dismantling the meat inspection system as we know it.” Information received through the Freedom of Information Act from USDA’s FSIS had a spreadsheet with the number of temporary inspectors hired and where they are working. Last December, FSIS posted “As the Food Safety … Read more
Food & Water Watch is critical of parts of the USDA Salmonella Action Plan announced yesterday. The proposal includes HIMP, the HAACP-Based Inspection Models Project announced last year that is basically a deregulation of the poultry industry. Wenonah Hauter, Food & Water Watch executive director said in a statement, “USDA’s Food and Safety Inspection Service wants … Read more
The American Meat Institute has commented on FSIS’s proposed new rule to label mechanically tenderized beef, stating that they are opposed to labeling because “the food safety risk associated with mechanically tenderized beef products is very low and does not warrant the proposed labeling.” Consumer Reports states that there have been at least five outbreaks … Read more
Food & Water Watch has issued a statement saying that six months after they sent a letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack about how the Australian Export Meat Inspection System (AEMIS) led to an increase in import rejections of unsafe Australian meat, the problems have not improved. A new letter has been sent about this … Read more
The Office of Inspector General of the USDA recently reviewed FSIS testing of boxed beef that is processed into ground beef or mechanically-tenderized steaks to see if the processes are adequate and used effectively to determine the sources of E. coli contamination. They found that FSIS needs to re-evaluate its methodology, since all boxed beef … Read more
Last week Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack stated in a press conference that sequestration could lead to temporary layoffs of federal meat inspectors. That action would stop meat and poultry processing in this country for that time period. The meat industry responded to this statement by arguing that the USDA is “legally obligated” to provide inspectors … Read more
The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has published a notice in the Federal Register that it made a major change to the way it inspects countries that are eligible to export meat, poultry, and egg products to the U.S. The notice is Ongoing Equivalence Verifications of Foreign Regulatory Systems, Docket No. FSIS-2012-0049. Food … Read more
The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service announced Friday that, in 60 days, they will require producers of non-intact raw beef and all ready-to-eat meat and poultry products to hold shipments until they pass agency testing for pathogens. This critical step will help prevent food poisoning outbreaks and recalls that result when a shipped product … Read more