A meat inspection program which the US Department of Agriculture hopes to approve for all domestic pork plants has frequently allowed the production of contaminated meat at American and foreign plants where the approach has already been instituted. Under the program, meat production facilities are allowed to have as much as 20 percent speedier processing lines, and companies can employ more of their own inspectors while having fewer in-house USDA inspectors. These protocols are already allowed in five US hog plants as part of a pilot program that began in 1997 with the intention of allowing all pork plants nationwide to institute the program after a USDA safety analysis. However, three of the pilot plants were found to be among the 10 worst offenders for domestic health and safety infractions, including failure to detect and remove fecal matter from meat, according to a report this spring by the USDA inspector general. Government inspectors eventually caught the violations at the end of processing lines, though federal procedure considers such late detection to be a violation of standards.
Posted on: Tue, 10 Sep 2013 06:29:59 +0000
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