U.S.

Meat Safety: Room For Improvement

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

June 21, 2000 / 2:05 PM EDT / CBS

A new report says the government needs to do more to improve food safety at the nation's meat processing plants.

CBS News Correspondent Bob Orr reports the audit by the Agriculture Department's Inspector General calls for tighter enforcement of sanitation standards in meat and poultry plants.

The 400-page report also recommends that processors be required to do more testing for deadly microbes before the meat is sent to market.

The audit says that USDA's switch to a science-based inspection system four years ago was an improvement but the agency has also "reduced its oversight beyond what was prudent and necessary for the protection of the consumer."

The current inspection system requires companies to identify potential hazards in slaughterhouses and processing plants and implement controls for foodborne pathogens. Previously, companies relied on USDA inspectors to find contaminated meat by poking and sniffing it. The inspectors' job now is to ensure that the plants are following their sanitation plans and to do some microbial testing.

Some of the plans are inadequate, according to the audit. Packers are required by the department to identify at least one "critical control point" in their processing procedures, but the report says this requirement was ignored by several of the plans scrutinized by the auditors.

"Management…it's absent here," says Roger Viadero, USDA Inspector General. "Because we find it's a haphazard sampling, it's a haphazard review of plants and plant operations."

A "critical control point" can be anything from a steam pasteurization unit that treats cattle carcasses in a slaughterhouse to temperature controls in a processing plant. USDA inspectors are required to monitor critical control points to make sure they are working properly.

The department "also needs to assert itself more aggressively in the plants' testing programs," according to the audit.

The report notes that plants are shipping meat to consumers without testing for specific strains of pathogens such as E. coli O157:H7 and Listeria monocytogenes, even when tests for generic versions of those bacteria were positive. The auditors also point out that plants aren't testing at all for some major pathogens such as campylobacter.

"You've got 31 percent of the product not being tested," says Viadero of meat headed from processing plants to the marketplace.
A year ago, the department required plants to reassess their sanitation plans to control for listeria, a problem with hot dogs, deli meats and other ready-to-eat products, but didn't require plants to document the review.

In a written response to the audit, USDA officials said they are reviewing their oversight and testing requirements and considering "a number of microbiological-based performance standards" that plants would be required to meet.

Last month, President Clinton announced that the deprtment would require processors to start testing for listeria. USDA officials are considering tighter standards for E. coli, a problem in ground beef.

The auditors reviewed 15 of the 6,000 plants nationwide that the department oversees.