(Reuters) — Regulators pushing to overhaul food safety inspections at poultry slaughterhouses have not thoroughly evaluated pilot projects that critics say could jeopardize food safety, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
The GAO report also said the U.S. Department of Agriculture failed to disclose accurate information about the data the department used to promote what it calls “modernization” changes at the plants.
Meat and poultry products contaminated with dangerous pathogens such as salmonella cause many food borne illnesses, and the government plan, which includes speeding up processing lines while cutting back on the number of government inspectors, has sparked significant opposition.
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If the government is to actually improve poultry inspection, “the (U.S. president Barack) Obama administration needs to get the legal authority from Congress to hold companies accountable for putting contaminated food into commerce, not deregulate inspection,” said Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch, which opposes the government plans.
However, the USDA’s Food Safety Inspection Service said the GAO report contains inaccuracies and misses the main objective of the government effort, which is to reduce overlapping inspections by plant employees and government inspectors and allow government inspectors to focus on areas of greatest risk to food safety.
The USDA has been overseeing a pilot project at slaughter plants for young chickens, turkeys and hogs since 1998 with a goal of reducing the number of federal inspectors to save taxpayer money while still strengthening carcass inspection.
Twenty-nine plants were participating in July: 19 chicken slaughter plants, five turkey plants and five hog plants.
The USDA said in 2011 that operation of the pilot project at 20 young chicken plants showed the streamlined inspection program would ensure equivalent, if not better, levels of food safety and quality than currently provided at plants not in the pilot project.
In early 2012, the USDA published a proposed rule that would extend the pilot program for poultry to all U.S. poultry plants.
However, the GAO report said it found that the USDA relied on limited snapshots of data and did not complete data evaluations at all turkey and hog plants in the pilot project.
Under the USDA proposal, plants could dramatically speed up processing lines and replace many USDA inspectors with poultry company employees.
However, government officials have said poultry will be safer in the new system, which would be the first major overhaul of poultry inspection in 50 years.
