Federal food inspection to be more stringent

Most sweeping change in a decade
The risk-based inspection system will be the most significant change to food safety inspections in a decade. The department overhauled inspections in 1996 when hundreds of people got sick and four children died after eating undercooked hamburgers from Jack in the Box restaurants.

Daily inspections of meat and poultry plants are required under current federal laws, which date back to 1906. Food safety laws were enacted in response to Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle,” which exposed horrifically unsanitary conditions in Chicago’s meatpacking industry.

Agriculture Department officials say the agency’s 7,500 food safety inspectors conducted about 9.2 million inspections at about 6,000 plants last year. About 90,000 microbiological samples are gathered and tested each year.

Still, about 76 million people get sick from food poisoning each year in the United States. Most get better after a day or two, but about 325,000 people are hospitalized. About 5,000 people die each year because of food-borne diseases.

Food-borne illness increased in 2004-05
Germs can contaminate many different foods.

Spinach and lettuce were the culprits in E. coli outbreaks from bagged salad and from lettuce at Taco Bell restaurants last year.

Recently, large batches of ConAgra-made peanut butter were recalled after the product was linked to a salmonella outbreak that left about 300 people ill in 39 states.

Still, meat and poultry account for a large share of outbreaks and illnesses, and they are nearly always on the menu for most people in the United States. The average person eats about 222 pounds of chicken, beef and pork annually — more than half a pound a day.

Illnesses from E. coli are down 29 percent from a decade ago, although rates inched up from 2004 to 2005. The numbers are not low enough, Raymond said. Reducing food-borne illness is the goal of the new inspection system.

Objections to new changes
Consumer groups, the inspectors’ union and the meat industry all say the concept has merit. But there are many objections to the way the department is going about it:

• Advocates for consumers say Raymond has not provided evidence that the changes will make food safer. They say the department needs better data on risks posed by various meat products and on safety records at plants. They also worry the changes might be designed to save money. “He claims it’s going to save lives — how is that actually going to happen?” DeWaal asked.
• Inspectors fear they will be assigned too many plants to inspect, said Stan Painter, chairman of the National Joint Council of Meat Inspection Locals. “Too many plants, too little time, too little authority,” Painter said. “Tell me how we could do a better job when we already have the flexibility to do what they’re talking about?”
• Meat companies like the idea, but first they want the government to be more consistent in how they issue citations for breaches in food safety. Some violations are really paperwork problems, says Skip Seward, lobbyist for the American Meat Institute. “Everybody would like to see the program get off on the right foot,” Seward said. This is going to be a long process.”
• There are fears the new system eventually will eliminate daily inspections for some plants. While that is not planned now, Raymond has said he might consider “virtual” inspections in which plants could fax records in lieu of an inspector’s visit.

Already, Agriculture Department officials have agreed to several changes suggested by consumer, labor and industry groups.

“We’re taking our time,” Raymond said. “We’re going to make sure what we’ve got planned works before we bring it out.

“It’s going to take a lot of education and training for our work force,” he said. “I can’t take 7,500 front-line inspectors and train them all overnight. So we’ve got to roll this out in incremental pieces.”

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