Agriculture Department to focus inspections on chronic violators
New risk-based approach will consider type of meat being processed, plant size, and history of food safety violations; move comes in response to recent E. coli outbreaks; daily inspections will continue
With mushrooms, spinach, and peanut butter now on the list of known forms of E. coli transmission — the priximate cause often being cross-contamination from meat products or animal byproducts — federal regulatory officials have decided to overhaul their inspection procedures of meat and poultry plants. According to new rules announced by the Department of Agriculture, those plants with better food handling procedures will be now be inspected less often, while those with known problems will receive a heightened level of scrutiny. “We will do this for a long time in these locations until we’ve had a chance to evaluate how well it’s going, where the bumps in the road might be, what we might need to do differently and how training needs to change,” said DoA’s Richard Raymond. Under the new approach, officials will use a risk-based system that will consider the type of product and a plant’s size and record of food safety violations. Mandatory daily inspections will continue as before.
-read more in Libby Quaid’s AP report
