Pork industry soon will have more power over meat inspections

[demmiblue]

Source: WaPo

The Trump administration plans to shift much of the power and responsibility for food safety inspections in hog plants to the pork industry as early as May, cutting the number of federal inspectors by about 40 percent and replacing them with plant employees.

Under the proposed new inspection system, the responsibility for identifying diseased and contaminated pork would be shared with plant employees, whose training would be at the discretion of plant owners. There would be no limits on slaughter-line speeds.

The new pork inspection system would accelerate the federal government’s move toward delegating inspections to the livestock industry. During the Obama administration, poultry plant owners were given more power over safety inspections, although that administration canceled plans to increase line speeds. The Trump administration in September allowed some poultry plants to increase line speeds.

The Trump administration also is working to shift inspection of beef to plant owners. Agriculture Department officials are scheduled next month to discuss the proposed changes with the meat industry.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/pork-industry-soon-will-have-more-power-over-meat-inspections/2019/04/03/12921fea-4f30-11e9-8d28-f5149e5a2fda_story.html?utm_term=.ed04af8cac77

[Phoenix61]

1. Sounds like a great time to become a

vegetarian.

[forgotmylogin]

14. You can still get salmonella from vegetables.

Who verifies that it's triple washed?!!

[Conjurer]

15. You know why that is right?

Pig shit is sprayed as a fertilizer.

[forgotmylogin]

17. And I imagine that's probably organic and less earth-damaging than chemical fertilizers.

The problem is when produce isn't washed properly after harvesting. That's why we need the FDA to do its job and follow regulations instead of lifting them and letting the producers take over and be allowed to cut corners as seems to be the current philosophy.

[Conjurer]

18. The problem is animal agriculture

That is far more devastating to the earth than any fertilizer.

[cstanleytech]

2. What can go wrong with the fox guarding the hen house?

[Firestorm49]

3. "....whose training would be at the discretion of plant owners."

Oh good. What was the foxes name again? You know, the one guarding the hen house. It’s not as if we haven’t had enough problems with food quality the past few years. Another decision by a mentally dull president.

[democratisphere]

4. What's a few rancid pigs among thousands.

Another example of why idiots with low IQs shouldn't be left in charge of anything.

[Delmette2.0]

11. It's the same as ....

Contracted to the lowest bidder.

[DirtEdonE]

5. So I guess you could say that if pigs could fly

They'd be Boeing 737 Max 8s.

Self-regulation having worked out so well in the airline industry.

[MyOwnPeace]

7. Why wouldn't it?

You know IQ45 would only hire "the best" to take care of it all, and he knows that his $$$-givers would do the same.

[erlewyne]

6. This will help the rural butcher

that supplies the rural county and hurt the big corporations.

My rural slaughterhouse gets pork and beef from the
rural community and these butchers have meat inspections
(relentless) and the bottom line is they know. They take
care of their consumer. Sure glad I live in the boonies.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

8. Because it worked great w Boeing and only two planeloads of people died. . . . nt

[rocktivity]

9. That's like allowing the foxes to inspect the henhouse

oh, wait...


rocktivity

[Submariner]

10. Please let the Donald get a nice painful Trichinosis infection

that keeps him on his twitter throne for hours blowing his guts out and living on baby food.

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

12. Inspection isn't just about only allowing healthy pigs into the plant...

... for slaughter. It is about going over the limits for fat content in cold cuts and sausages, etc..., water content in hams (inject too much water and it is a, "ham product", not a HAM). No wonder so many praise the quality of the imported (mostly from Germany) foods at Aldi® stores.

I have family members that are inspectors and inspectors in charge. The corporate supervisors and managers play a cat and mouse game with every batch of meat processed. The rates of fat, water and meat must be totaled up and fit into the USDA guidelines or it gets labeled as, "water added ham product", or lard.

[roamer65]

13. Cook your pork good, folks.

[Conjurer]

16. There is a very simple and easy solution to this.

Stop eating pigs.