Raw Story – by David EdwardsThe Department of Agriculture (USDA) is planning to roll out a meat inspection program nationwide that will allow pork plants to use their own inspectors, but it has a history of producing contaminated meat at American and foreign plants.
The Washington Post reported on Monday that documents and interviews showed that a plan to allow hog plants to replace federal USDA inspectors with their own private employees had produced “serious lapses that included failing to remove fecal matter from meat” in three of the five plants that had participated in a pilot program for more than a decade.
And plants using the same procedure in Australia and Canada also ran into problems. In one case, a Canadian company had to recall 8.8 million pounds of beef products for E. coli contamination.
Most recently, New Zealand had been given permission to export meat to the United States from plants using the inspection procedure. But government inspectors in New Zealand have already warned that the meat produced at those plants is contaminated at times.
“Tremendous amounts of fecal matter remain on the carcasses,” Ian Baldick, an inspectors union representative, told the Post. “Not small bits, but chunks.”
In 1997, the USDA allowed five pork plants to participate in the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point-based Inspection Models Project (HIMP), which industry lobbyists claimed would accelerate processing times while cutting down on the number of government meat inspectors. After 15 years, a USDA inspector general report found last spring that three of the five plants in the program were some of the worst in the country.
A separate Government Accountability Office (GAO) report last month said that it would be difficult to recommend rolling out the plan nationwide.
The USDA is moving forward with rolling out the new meat inspection procedures after the evaluation is complete in the spring of 2014. A similar plan for chicken and turkey plants is expected to be finalized later this year.
Pardon my french, but what crap! I raise and butcher my own animals, beef, pork, lamb, duck, chicken, and in a rare accident, some feces touch the carcass (it takes a lot of effort to be that sloppy butchering to have that kind of accident) it immediately gets hosed off. After skinning and gutting, the entire carcass gets washed, removing any contaminants like stray hair. There is absolutely no excuse for leaving feces on meat, except for corporate profits. Drive these idiots out of business by going to a local farmer, local butcher, etc. and stop this mess. Even in large cities I am sure that a 2 hour drive to the country will get you to someone who takes care of their animals.
Ever seen “Fast Food Nation?”
Not many people have the means to drive 2 hours out in the country and find some farmer raising beef or pork or chicken in a responsible manner and doing the same when butchering.
Add in the space needed and the cost of a freezer and it soon becomes unobtainable.
I’ve read the book “fast food nation”. That alone should prompt people to take their food safety into their own hands. What is the one most important thing to most people? Their health and the health of their children. When people stop worrying about playing games on their iPods, maybe seeing the cancer spreading throughout this land, will be a wake up call. Or not…Go back to sleep and eat your McDonnalds, you won’t be on this earth for long.
It all makes perfect sense. A lot of the so-called undocumented workers who cross border work in these plants. Cheaper labor, higher profit, crappy product. Welcome to the land of the Federal Death Administration. Trust them and you get what you deserve.
Like the poster above said see a local farmer and get some good food drive these psychopaths of out business and the illegals back home in one fell swoop. A real win win for us. Isn’t it time we had one?