New Inspection Policies Mean Improved Safety

August 2, 1996

Greensboro, NC: The sweeping legislation recently signed by President Clinton will make the meat inspection procedures practiced over the past 90 years a footnote in history. New policies tighten acceptable standards and require meat processors to include scientific tests for pathogenic bacteria such as E. coli and Salmonella in their production process.

"For decades, meat inspection was left to the observational skills of the inspector," said Dr. Aubrey Mendonca, a microbial food safety research scientist with North Carolina A&T State University's School of Agriculture. "Scientific tests were not required, and therefore, rarely used."

The new rules are intended to modernize the inspection program and replace a system based on sight and smell with more scientific methods. It also will, for the first time, require plants that slaughter and process meat and poultry to target and reduce harmful bacteria on their products.

USDA estimates that as many as 4,000 deaths and 5,000,000 illnesses result annually from the consumption of meat and poultry contaminated with four major bacterial pathogens: Salmonella, Campylobacter, E.coli 0157:H7, and Listeria monocytogenes.

"This is the fundamental change in meat and poultry inspection called for by the National Academy of Sciences and many other experts throughout government, industry, and the consumer community," said USDA Secretary Dan Glickman at a White House press conference. "The power of the new HACCP-based food safety system is that it scientifically targets the important hazards and builds the public health principle of prevention into every meat and poultry production process."

The four major elements of the new rules are:

• Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) - Every plant must adopt and carry out its own HACCP plan that systematically addresses all the significant hazards associated with its products. The effectiveness of the HACCP plan must be demonstrated by the plant, and will be continually verified by inspectors from USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service.
• Mandatory E.coli testing in slaughter plants - Every slaughter plant must regularly test carcasses for generic E. coli to verify the effectiveness of the plant's procedures for preventing and reducing fecal contamination, which is the major source of contamination with harmful bacteria like E.coli 0157:H7 and Salmonella.
• Pathogen Reduction Performance Standards for Salmonella - All slaughter plants and plants producing raw ground products must ensure that their Salmonella contamination rate is below the current national baseline incidence. This first-ever regulatory performance standard for a pathogen on raw meat and poultry should ensure aid progress in reducing harmful bacteria. USDA will begin comprehensive Salmonella testing this summer, and enforce the Salmonella standards in conjunction with implementation of HACCP.
• Sanitation Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) - As the foundation for HACCP, every plant must adopt and carry out a written plan for meeting its sanitation responsibilities.

The new system will be phased in beginning this summer with USDA's Salmonella testing program, followed early next year by implementation of the sanitation SOP and E. coli testing requirements. The HACCP system will be implemented first in the larger (500-plus employees) meat and poultry plants, with 75 percent of slaughter production to be under HACCP-based process control and subject to Salmonella performance standards by January 1998. Small plants will have until January 1999 to comply with HACCP, and very small plants (ones having fewer than 10 employees or less than $2.5 million in annual sales) will have until January 2000.

The new rules apply to over 6,200 slaughter and processing plants that operate under federal inspection. The same or equivalent requirements will apply to state-inspected meat and poultry plants, and to foreign plants that export to the United States.

The Food Safety and Inspection Service "farm-to-table" food safety strategy for meat and poultry also includes collaboration with the Food and Drug Administration to set and enforce standards designed to minimize growth of harmful bacteria during transportation and storage. The strategy calls for cooperation between state and federal food safety agencies to improve food safety standards and practices in retail and food service establishments, such as restaurants and grocery stores.

"The concepts proposed in this plan are not new," said Mendonca. "HACCP was developed by NASA, Natick Laboratories, and the Pillsbury Company in 1971 to ensure that food products for astronauts were free of disease- causing microorganisms. The HACCP system enables the production of foods with a high level of assurance that they are safe. If the HACCP system is well- designed and functioning effectively, there is little need for testing the finished product, except for monitoring purposes."

Regardless of the new inspection standards, Mendonca says, the consumer should follow safe food handling procedures. "It is impossible to totally eliminate harmful bacteria. People should continue to wash their hands, make sure that their meat is thoroughly cooked, and follow other safe food handling guidelines."

For more information, please contact Dr. Aubrey Mendonca, NC A&T School of Agriculture, (336) 334-7328.