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Summary

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) must inspect most meat, poultry, and processed egg products for safety, wholesomeness, and labeling. Federal inspectors or their state counterparts are present at all times in virtually all slaughter plants and for at least part of each day in establishments that further process meat and poultry products. Debate has ensued for decades over whether this system, first designed in the early 1900s, has kept pace with changes in the food production and marketing industries. Several significant changes in meat and poultry inspection programs were included in the 2008 farm bill (P.L. 110-246), signed into law in June 2008. These include permitting some stateinspected meat and poultry products to enter interstate commerce, just like USDA-inspected products; bringing catfish under mandatory USDA inspection; requiring an inspected establishment to notify USDA if it believes that an adulterated or misbranded product has entered commerce; and requiring establishments to prepare and maintain written recall plans. USDA?s implementation of these provisions in 2009 is likely to be an oversight item for the 111th Congress. The following are among other recent inspection issues that could received continued attention in the 111th Congress, which also could consider broader legislation to reform food safety programs?including those of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which oversees all foods other than meat and poultry. (Among the more sweeping options has been a proposal to consolidate federal food safety responsibilities, including those of FSIS, under a single, independent food agency.) Is enough being done to address longstanding concerns about naturally occurring microbiological contamination? In 1996, FSIS added a sweeping new system known as Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP)?essentially plant-specific contamination prevention plans?on top of the traditional ?sight-, smell-, and touch-based? inspection system. However, large recalls due to pathogen problems are still occurring, and significant declines in the incidence of major foodborne pathogens have not occurred in recent years, according to government data. Past proposals to delineate pathogen performance standards and/or safe tolerance levels could again be offered. Should USDA have new authority to mandate recalls of suspect meat and poultry products, as advocates have requested? FSIS now relies on the establishments to recall adulterated products but asserts that this approach, along with other enforcement tools, is sufficient to protect consumers. Those wanting mandatory recall authority also contend that an improved ability to trace animals, meat, and poultry products should be built into the system to make recalls more effective. Does FSIS have adequate funding and resources, and/or should industry pay more for inspection? FSIS inspection is mainly funded through USDA?s annual appropriation. Congress has denied successive Administrations? proposals for new user fees. Separately, Congress slowed FSIS?s implementation of a controversial new ?risk based inspection system? (RBIS, now being retooled as the ?Public Health Based Inspection System?) aimed at shifting some existing FSIS resources from processing plants and products that pose relatively lower safety risks to others posing relatively higher risks.

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