Study finds inspectors missing some contaminated chickens

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March 31, 2000

Web posted at: 11:34 AM EST (1634 GMT)

 

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A study of chicken slaughtering plants finds that one in

every 100 birds passes by government inspectors with fecal contamination on it

or signs of poultry diseases that threaten human health.

 

Agriculture Department officials, who released the study Thursday, said the

contamination rate is relatively low but they expect to cut it further under an

experimental new inspection system.

 

" While our system is good, it's not perfect, " said Thomas Billy, administrator

of USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service.

 

Chicken carcasses are subject to additional cleansing after they pass the

inspectors, so all fecal material should be eliminated before the meat reaches

consumers, industry officials say.

 

The study was conducted over the past year at 16 poultry plants that have agreed

to take part in the new inspection system.

 

Some 306 of the 32,075 carcasses sampled in the study had fecal contamination.

Another 43, or 0.1 percent, had lesions and other signs of poultry diseases that

are dangerous to humans.

 

A new role for inspectors

 

Under the standard program, federal inspectors sit at fixed points along

production lines and have about 2 seconds to check each carcass for defects and

contamination as it passes by. Under the new system, that job is being left to

company employees. Federal inspectors are being pulled off the production lines

to do testing and oversight.

 

Billy said that will allow inspectors to focus on catching food-safety problems,

such as fecal contamination, rather than looking for defects or stray feathers

that should be the packing plant's responsibility to find. Inspectors will be

doing four times as much sampling for fecal contamination as they do now, as

well as testing for dangerous microbes, he said.

 

Consumer advocates generally support the experimental system. But the

contamination rate is already low enough that it will be difficult to reduce it,

said Caroline Smith DeWaal of the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

" The data is going to be tough for the industry to beat, " she said.

 

The plants also were tested for the presence of harmful microbes, including

salmonella. About 6 percent of the chickens sampled were contaminated with

salmonella. The federal limit is 20 percent and the national average is about 10

percent, DeWaal said.

 

Additional testing will be done at the plants to see how they performing under

the new system. The first such data is expected to be available in June or July.

 

Shifting responsibilities

 

The American Federation of Government Employees, which represents 7,000

inspectors, unsuccessfully sued USDA to stop the new inspection program,

claiming that a 1907 law requires that the agency physically examine every meat

and poultry carcass.

 

The union says the department essentially is allowing companies to police

themselves. The program started last fall at a plant in Alabama and other

facilities are being phased in over time.

 

In addition to the 16 chicken plants, the program is being started at five

plants that slaughter hogs and three that process turkeys.

 

The project is part of a prevention-oriented initiative by the Clinton

administration that is putting more responsibility on processors to reduce

food-related illnesses.

 

Companies are required to identify key points in the manufacturing and packing

processes where food can be contaminated, and then adopt new procedures and get

new equipment to prevent potential contamination.

 

http://www.cnn.com/2000/FOOD/news/03/31/food.safety.ap/index.html

 

 

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