Doggieburgers OK'd

[Guest guest]

Posted by Andrew Martin at 4:23 pm CST

 

A short notice from the United States Department of Agriculture has

created a

stir-and perhaps a wave of nausea-among the nation’s meat inspectors.

 

Called “FSIS NOTICE 15-06: Use of Non-Amenable Animal Tissue in Inspected

Products,” the notice essentially says that animals that you wouldn’t

normally

associate with hamburgers can be “included in amenable meat or poultry

products

produced in official establishments.”

 

In other words, anything from deer to dog meat can be ground into

hamburger, as

long as it meets state regulations, which inspectors say tend to be

looser than

the federal government’s.

 

“Suffice it to say, this is bizarre to inspectors in the field,” said Trent

Berhow, president of the Midwest Council of Food Inspectors locals, who

lives in

Iowa. “To read this, it looks to us that any product that is slaughtered

under

state inspection requirements can be co-mingled with federally inspected

products.

 

“Could you bring roadkill in?” he asked. “I don’t know how to read this.

I don’t

think you would get (the USDA) to say we are talking about roadkill here.”

 

Steven Cohen, a spokesman for the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection

Service,

said the notice was simply clarifying previous policies that had

conflicted with

each other. The bottom line, Cohen said, is that any kind of animal meat

can be

used with USDA inspected meat as long as its not adulterated.

 

For instance, he said, he said buffalo meat could be blended with ground

beef,

though he noted that the types of meat would have be listed as part of the

ingredients on the label. Could dog meat be blended with ground beef?

 

“I don’t believe that it is illegal, but there is no place that is

producing dog

meat,” Cohen said, adding that the regulation fits a “very limited

circumstance.

“I don’t think there’s anyone who is doing this on a commercial basis.”

 

But roadkill wouldn’t qualify because, since the animal wasn’t

slaughtered, it

would be considered adulterated, he said.

 

Non-amenable animal tissue, as defined in the notice, is any tissue from

animals

not subject to inspection under the Federal Meat Inspection Act and the

Poultry

Products Inspection Act. It includes edible tissue from exotic animals,

rabbits,

migratory birds and other animals not under the scope of USDA

inspection, like

alligator and kangaroo.

 

News of the notice swept through the community of meat inspectors after

one of

them sent an email to USDA’s technical support center asking for

clarification.

In response to a question, Kris Kenne, a USDA staff officer, said

someone could

mix deer meat with pork and sell deer dogs with a USDA logo as long as the

ingredients were labeled and state law allowed it.

 

Does this also mean that a slaughtered cat or dog can be added to

sausage, Kenne

was asked?

“Yes, that is a possibility should one wish to pursue to use them as an

ingredient in the product. Public perception may not be so acceptable of

the

practice though,” Kenne responded.

 

Kenne was not at his office on Friday and could not be reached for comment.

 

http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/news_theswamp/2006/03/kangeroo_anyone.html