The Obama administration is moving to cut down on the thousands of foodborne illnesses linked to chicken and turkey each year with an overhaul of poultry plant inspection rules that are more than 50 years old. Final rules announced Thursday would reduce the number of government poultry inspectors. But those who remain will focus more on food safety than on quality, requiring them to pull more birds off the line for closer inspections and encouraging more testing for pathogens. More inspectors would check the facilities to make sure they are clean. The Agriculture Department says the change could cut down on 5,000 foodborne illnesses annually. The changes would be voluntary, but many of the countrys largest poultry companies are expected to opt in. The final rule abandons a controversial part of the original proposal that would have allowed companies to increase the speeds of processing lines in chicken plants. USDA said that increasing line speeds wouldnt affect food safety, but consumer groups argued it could make it harder to detect obvious contamination and harm worker safety. USDA said the number of inspectors at poultry plants could be reduced by around a fourth if all companies opted into the proposal. ---------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------- sooooooooo...everybodys thinking about the wrong things, once again. they dont see the chickens and the fact of the horror that is the cafo. . they see tiny feathered carriers of bugs and superbugs. wbtw/story/26169908/usda-overhauls-50-year-old-poultry-inspections
Posted on: Sun, 03 Aug 2014 04:33:31 +0000
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