Food safety advocates Food Chain Alliance and the Center for Food Safety filed a petition against the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to implement mandatory meatpacking worker safety. Many employees at meatpacking plants and slaughterhouses have contacted coronavirus. Some plants have closed because of these illnesses, triggering worries about meat shortages. Center for Food safety states, "OSHA has a duty to issue an emergency temporary standard to protect workers from new hazards that pose a grave danger to health and safety. The COVID-19 pandemic is certainly a grave threat to human health, but OSHA has only suggested that meat companies comply with voluntary safety standards." Ryan Talbott, staff attorney at Center for Food safety said in statement, "If … [Read more...]
Feds Investigating Six Meatpacking Plants After COVID-19 Outbreaks
Federal regulators are investigating six meatpacking plants after large COVID-19 outbreaks have been linked to those facilities. The plants include JBS Packerland in Green Bay, Wisconsin, American Foods Group in Green Bay, Smithfield Foods in Cudahy, Wisconsin, and Salms Partners in Denmark, Wisconsin, Pizza crust manufacturer TNT Crust in Green Bay and Birds Eye Foods in Darien, Wisconsin are also being investigated, according to Wisconsin Public Radio. Meatpacking and meat processing plants have become hotspots for coronavirus illnesses in the past few weeks. Smithfield Foods in South Dakota had to close last week after 300 employees were sickened by the virus. One of the issues with these facilities is that employees have to work in close contact with each other. Employees have … [Read more...]
Food & Water Watch: New Swine Inspection System Could Spur Pandemic
Food & Water Watch, commenting on the New Swine Inspection System (NSIS) proposed by the USDA, says that this new swine inspection system is so dangerous it could spur another zoonotic pandemic. Zoonotic diseases are those that make the jump from animals to humans. Food safety agencies, including Center for Food Safety, have issued warnings about this new system for months. The system would let corporation. employees inspect the carcasses instead of federal inspectors. It also surrenders federal control over removing contamination from carcasses by untrained employees. It also lifts limits on slaughter line speeds. That means plant employees can determine which animals are fit for slaughter, which carcasses can be placed into commerce, and can set their own line speeds. Food … [Read more...]
USDA Increasing Chicken Slaughter Line Speeds, Granting Waivers
According to Food & Water Watch, the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service granted another regulatory waived to a chicken plant to increase its chicken slaughter line speeds up to 175 birds per minute with only one FSIS trained inspected at the end of the line. The plant in question is the Foster Farms slaughter and processing plant in Kelso, Washington. Last year, the USDA allowed many chicken slaughter plants to increase their line speeds under the New Poultry Inspection System (NPIS). One of those plants failed the FSIS Salmonella performance standard and is in violation of the new criteria established by USDA to qualify for line speed waivers, according to Food & Water Watch. Chicken carcasses are put onto lines and moved past inspectors who check them for obvious … [Read more...]
Center For Food Safety Challenges New Swine Inspection System
Center for Food Safety (CFS) is challenging the USDA's new swine inspection program with a lawsuit filed earlier this month. That agency, along with Food & Water Watch, is suing the USDA, stating that new rules about pork safety inspection in slaughter plants are dangerous for employees, consumers, and the animals themselves. The New Swine Inspection System (NSIS) lets corporation employees inspect the carcasses themselves instead of using federal inspectors, and also surrenders federal control over removing contamination from carcasses "without any minimum training requirements for slaughter-plant employees," according to CFS. This is a reversal to the swine slaughter inspection system that was put in place in the United States in 1906, when the Pure Food and Drug Act was … [Read more...]
Food & Water Watch Finds Privatized Inspection System Produces More Contaminated Chicken
Food & Watch Watch has analyzed the USDA's regulatory sampling for Salmonella bacteria in the country's poultry slaughter plants, and has found that more contaminated chicken is being produced. Thirty percent of plants operating under the new privatized system have failed the performance standard for that pathogenic bacteria. The New Poultry Inspection System (NPIS) removes USDA inspectors from slaughter lines. Company employees are now responsible for inspections, under this system. Just one USDA inspector is on each line, and that person must inspect three birds per second. The final rule, proposed in 2012, was published in 2014. USDA argued that this inspection system would reduce the incidence of Salmonella contamination. Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & … [Read more...]
USDA Says Beef and Veal Bacterial Contamination Interventions Are Working
USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) published preliminary data on the first six months of the Beef and Veal Carcass Baseline Survey, and it states that the percentage of all pathogens decreased from post hide removal to pre-chill. FSIS launched a 12 month survey to collect samples at two points in the slaughter process. This data is being used to estimate national prevalence of select pathogens, assessment of the slaughter dressing procedures, and development of performance guidelines. The pre-chill numbers are measured after all anti-microbial interventions. For instance, the carcasses had a 25.49% positive test for Salmonella after hide removal, but only 3.92% positive at pre-chill. E. coli O157:H7 was positive for 1.60% of samples at the post-hide removal stage, but … [Read more...]
CFIA Suspends Operating License of Beef Slaughter Plant
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has suspended the operating license of Northern Natural Processing, Establishment 659, effective July 10, 2014. the slaughter plant is located in Neudorf, Saskatchewan. The license was suspended because the company did not implement corrective measures as required by law to ensure the safety of meat products produced at that facility. There is no word on what the problem is or what the food safety violations were. There is also no word on whether or not any illnesses have occurred relating to these alleged violations. The CFIA has determined that adequate controls for food safety were not being implemented on a insistent basis. The plant will not reopen until the "necessary corrective measures" have been taken and the government is … [Read more...]
