Geoffrey S Becker. Meat and Poultry Inspection: Background and Selected Issues [R].Specialist in Agricultural Policy March 22, 2010

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) must inspect most meat, poultry, and processed egg products for safety, wholesomeness, and labeling.
Federal inspectors or their state counterparts are present at all times in virtually all slaughter plants and for at least part of each day in establishments that further process meat and poultry products. Debate has ensued for decades over whether this system, first designed in the early 1900s, has kept pace with changes in the food production and marketing industries.

Several significant changes in meat and poultry inspection programs were included in the 2008 farm bill (P.L. 110-246), signed into law in June 2008. These include permitting certain state-inspected meat and poultry products to enter interstate commerce, just like USDA-inspected products; bringing catfish under mandatory USDA inspection; requiring an inspected establishment to notify USDA if it believes that an adulterated or misbranded product has entered commerce; and requiring establishments to prepare and maintain written recall plans. USDA’s implementation of these provisions is an oversight item for the 111th Congress. Other recent inspection issues could receive continued attention in the 111th Congress, which currently appears to be focused on broader legislation to reform food safety programs—notably those of the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which oversees all foods other than meat and poultry. Issues relevant to FSIS programs include the following. Is enough being done to address longstanding concerns about naturally occurring microbiological contamination? In 1996, FSIS added a sweeping new system known as Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP)—essentially plant-specific contamination prevention plans—on top of the traditional “sight-, smell-, and touch-based” inspection system. However, recalls due to pathogen problems continue to occur, and the significant rates of decline in the incidence of some major foodborne pathogens have not been sustained in recent years, according to government data. Past proposals to delineate pathogen performance standards and/or safe tolerance levels could again be offered.

Should USDA have authority to mandate recalls of meat and poultry products, as advocates have requested? FSIS now relies on the establishments to recall adulterated products but asserts that this approach, along with other enforcement tools, is sufficient to protect consumers. Those wanting mandatory recall authority also contend that an improved ability to trace animals, meat, and poultry products should be built into the system to make recalls more effective.

Does FSIS have adequate funding and resources, and/or should industry pay more for inspection? FSIS inspection is mainly funded through USDA’s annual appropriation, with some user fees authorized to cover plant overtime and holiday inspection costs. Congress has denied successive Administrations’ proposals for additional user fees. Congress also has used annual appropriations measures to direct FSIS’s administration of its programs. Examples include prohibiting implementation of a rule that would allow imports of some Chinese poultry products; prohibiting the use of funds to inspect horses to be used for food for humans; and slowing the agency’s implementation of a controversial “risk based inspection system” (RBIS, now being retooled as the “Public Health Based Inspection System”) aimed at shifting some existing FSIS resources from processing plants and products that pose relatively lower safety risks to others posing relatively higher risks.

 

Background on the Programs ......................................................................................................1
      Statutory Authorities .............................................................................................................1
           Federal Meat Inspection Act of 1906 ...............................................................................1
           Poultry Products Inspection Act of 1957..........................................................................1
           Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946.................................................................................2
           Egg Products Inspection Act............................................................................................2
      System Basics .......................................................................................................................2
            Coverage ........................................................................................................................2
           Plant Sanitation...............................................................................................................2
           HACCP ..........................................................................................................................3
            Slaughter Inspection........................................................................................................3
           Processing Inspection......................................................................................................3
           Pathogen Testing.............................................................................................................3
           Enforcement ...................................................................................................................3
           Funding ..........................................................................................................................4
            Staffing...........................................................................................................................4
            State Inspection...............................................................................................................4
           Import Inspection............................................................................................................4
Microbiological Contamination and HACCP...............................................................................5
      Development of HACCP.......................................................................................................6
      Pathogen Performance Standards and Salmonella ..................................................................6
      E. coli O157:H7 ....................................................................................................................9
      Listeria monocytogenes .......................................................................................................12
      Risk-Based Inspection System ............................................................................................14
Other Selected Issues ................................................................................................................16
      Safety of Meats in School Meals Programs..........................................................................16
      Recall and Enforcement Proposals ......................................................................................18
      Meat Traceability and Animal Identification........................................................................20
      Funding and User Fees........................................................................................................21
      Chinese Poultry Rule ..........................................................................................................22
      State-Inspected Products .....................................................................................................24
      BSE ....................................................................................................................................25
           North American Cases...................................................................................................25
           BSE Safeguards ............................................................................................................25
      Humane Slaughter and the Hallmark/Westland Recall .........................................................27
Background on the Programs

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is responsible for inspecting most meat, poultry, and processed egg products for safety, wholesomeness, and proper labeling. Federal inspectors or their state counterparts are present at all times in virtually all slaughter plants and for at least part of each day in establishments that further process meat and poultry products. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), is responsible for ensuring the safety of virtually all other human foods, including seafood, and for animal drugs and feed ingredients.

Several significant changes in meat and poultry inspection programs were included in the 2008 farm bill (P.L. 110-246), signed into law in June 2008. These include permitting certain state-inspected meat and poultry products to enter interstate commerce, just like USDA-inspected products; bringing catfish under mandatory USDA inspection; requiring an inspected establishment to notify USDA if it believes that an adulterated or misbranded product has entered commerce; and requiring establishments to prepare and maintain written recall plans.

Recently, the effectiveness of the FSIS inspection system has been compared favorably (by some) to FDA’s, particularly with regard to its import safety program. At the same time, recalls of fresh and processed meat and poultry products, often due to microbiological contamination, and illness outbreaks caused by such products, continue to challenge the industry and government regulators.

These incidents have fueled interest in a number of bills in the 110^th   and 111^th   Congresses to change other elements of USDA’s authorizing statutes. What, if any, additional changes should lawmakers consider to improve safety oversight of meat and poultry production?

This law as amended (21 U.S.C. 601 et seq.) has long required USDA to inspect all cattle, sheep, swine, goats, horses, mules, and other equines brought into any plant to be slaughtered and processed into products for human consumption. Since passage of the FY2006 USDA appropriation (P.L. 109-97, Section 798), these types of animals are now called “amenable species.” P.L. 109-97 also gave the Secretary of Agriculture the discretion to add additional species to the list. As noted, the 2008 farm bill makes catfish an amenable species.

Poultry Products Inspection Act of 1957

This law as amended (21 U.S.C. 451 et seq.) makes poultry inspection mandatory for any domesticated birds intended for use as human food. The current list of included species is chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, guineas, ratites (ostrich, emu, and rhea), and squabs (pigeons up to one month old).

Under this law as amended (7 U.S.C. 1621), FSIS also provides voluntary inspection for buffalo, antelope, reindeer, elk, migratory waterfowl, game birds, and rabbits, which the industry can request on a fee-for-service basis. These meat and poultry species (which are not specifically covered by the mandatory inspection statutes) are still within the purview of FDA under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA, 21 U.S.C. 301 et seq.), whether or not inspected under the voluntary FSIS program. FDA has jurisdiction over meat products from such species in interstate commerce, even if they bear the USDA inspection mark.

This law as amended (21 U.S.C. 1031 et seq.) is the authority under which FSIS assures the safety of liquid, frozen, and dried egg products, domestic and imported, and the safe disposition of damaged and dirty eggs. FDA holds regulatory authority over shell eggs in restaurants and stores.

System Basics

FSIS’s legal inspection responsibilities begin when animals arrive at slaughterhouses, and they generally end once products leave processing plants. Certain custom slaughter and most retail store and restaurant activities are exempt from federal inspection; however, they may be under state inspection.

No meat or poultry establishment can slaughter or process products for human consumption until FSIS approves in advance its plans and specifications for the premises, equipment, and operating procedures. Once this approval is granted and operations begin, the plant must continue to follow a detailed set of rules that cover such things as proper lighting, ventilation, and water supply; cleanliness of equipment and structural features; and employee sanitation procedures.

 

USDA Meat Grading USDA meat and poultry grading is distinct and separate from the FSIS safety inspection program. Upon request, firms may request that inspectors from a separate USDA agency, the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), grade their products for quality attributes, but only after it has been cleared by FSIS for safety and wholesomeness. Unlike safety inspection, which is mandatory and largely covered by appropriated funds, grading services are voluntary and funded by industry user fees. Nationally uniform quality grades are used to convey, to buyers and sellers, such traits as tenderness, flavor, and juiciness, and so forth. For example, AMS now grades beef carcasses as prime, choice, select, standard and commercial, utility, cutter, and canner; these grades are not usually visible on individual retail cuts but can appear on the packages. Grades are also available for veal, lamb, and poultry. Legislative authority for quality (and yield) grades comes through the Agricultural Marketing Act (7 U.S.C. 1621).