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The U.S. Meat and Poultry Inspection System: An Overview
Background
From
1906 through the present, the meat and poultry industry has become one of the
most heavily regulated industries in the United States. The U.S. meat and
poultry inspection system has augmented
industry efforts to create the safest meat and poultry food supply in
the world. Under the Federal Meat Inspection Act, FMIA (21 U.S.C. 601 et seq.), and the Poultry Products Inspection Act (21 U.S.C. 451 et seq.), the United States Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA FSIS)
issues regulations governing the production of meat and poultry products
prepared for distribution in commerce. FSIS and its nearly 10,000 employees
inspect about 6,500 establishments producing
meat, poultry and egg products. Veterinary inspectors check animals before
and after slaughter, visually and physically examining more than 5 billion
poultry carcasses and 100 million livestock carcasses each year.
Federal inspectors also monitor
products during processing, handling, and packaging to ensure that they are safe
and accurately labeled. Federal inspectors have the authority to shut plants
down for food safety violations, by withholding the federal inspection mark on
products. Companies under federal inspection apply the USDA mark to all
products. The mark contains an establishment number, which indicates the facility that produced the product. The
presence of the mark indicates that the
product was produced in compliance with one of the most comprehensive
set of regulations applied to an industry.
At the close of the twentieth
century, the American Meat Institute, National Academy of Science, Government
Accounting Office, and National Advisory
Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods called for changes in
the existing inspection system to better address microbial pathogens, and to
move away from carcass-by-carcass inspection. A major shift in the approach to
meat and poultry inspection began in 1998, with the issuance of the Pathogen
Reduction and Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (PR/HACCP) Rule.
HACCP
The
HACCP rule stated that "all slaughter and processing plants will be required to
adopt the system of process controls to prevent food
safety hazards known as HACCP." The concept of HACCP was developed and
implemented by Pillsbury to make safe food for astronauts. In response to the
HACCP-based regulation, the industry began a three-year process of implementing
HACCP in accordance with federal rules.
Under HACCP, each plant must analyze
the processes used to make each type of
product and must identify 1) where
problems may occur and; 2) which hazards are reasonably likely to occur.
Food safety resources are then concentrated at these points. Essentially, HACCP
is built on a strategy of preventing
problems before they occur rather than simply detecting them after the
product is made. Federal inspectors are present in the plants to determine
adherence to the internal HACCP plan and
that the product being produced meets federal standards.
The
PR/HACCP Rule established that critical limits must be designed to satisfy FSIS
regulations, including performance standards that create levels of pathogen
reduction and limits on pathogen growth that official establishments must
achieve in order to produce unadulterated products. FSIS claimed that
performance standards would help ensure the safety of products, give
establishments the incentive and flexibility to adopt innovative,
science-based, food safety processing procedures and controls, and provide
objective, measurable standards that could be verified by FSIS oversight. FSIS
wanted to minimize regulatory burdens on the industry and the performance
criteria would be implemented on the basis of a statistical evaluation of the
prevalence of bacteria in each establishment's products compared with national
prevalence.
In addition to reorganization, FSIS
wanted to:
- * Implement a modernized system of
risk-based inspection
- * Initiate a major redeployment of its
inspection resources to successfully implement HACCP
- * Better target food safety hazards
during transportation, storage and retail sale.
FSIS
publishes guidance (Directives & Notices) for their inspection staff on "how
they are to protect the public health by properly verifying an establishment's
compliance with the pathogen reduction, sanitation, and HACCP regulations."
FSIS inspectors use expertise and judgment in determining whether sanitation
performance standard requirements are met. Inspectors also take verification
samples that are tested for the presence of potentially pathogenic
microorganisms, selected tissues, and certain drug and chemical residues.
A critical control point, or CCP, is
a step in the process at which control can be applied and is essential to
prevent, reduce or eliminate a food safety hazard. When suitable, plants use a
variety of intervention strategies at CCPs. Metal detectors are used to ensure
that no piece of metal - like a screw from a machine - makes its way into a
product. Many beef packers use steam, hot water and other washes to reduce the
likelihood that microbial hazards survive on the external surfaces of meat and
poultry carcasses. Other plants use hand-held steam vacuums to ensure that
carcasses are cleaned adequately. Interventions also may include the use of
food-grade additives that kill or reduce the growth of potential microbial
hazards, infrared heat tunnels to pasteurize product surfaces and high-pressure
systems to kill any surviving bacteria on certain meat and poultry products.
Microbiological tests conducted at meat plants on equipment or products include
tests for generic E. coli, Listeria species and Listeria
monocytogenes, Salmonella and E. coli O157:H7.
The tests are conducted by companies or
federal laboratories and are an additional measure used to ensure that
food safety systems are working properly.
Summary
HACCP
has provided a framework for meat inspection to move into the 21st century. The
HACCP approach provides a science-based approach to controlling potential food
safety hazards, whether they are physical, chemical or microbiological.
Reducing microbiological contamination in the food supply is a priority for the
meat and poultry industry. Because microbial pathogens, if present, typically
are present only in very low numbers, eliminating the possibility of a single
microbial pathogen creates unique
challenges. While recognized by international experts, such as those of
the International Commission on Microbiological Specifications for Foods, that
microbiological testing cannot ensure food safety, testing is used to help verify that the HACCP procedures
are working to control, reduce or eliminate potential microbial hazards.
And this system, coupled with the industry's
commitment to producing the safest food possible,
means that the U.S.
meat and poultry supply is among the safest in the world.
Experts:
Dennis E. Burson, Professor,
Animal
Science
University
of Nebraska-Lincoln
Helpful
Links:
American
Meat Institute, www.MeatAMI.com
www.meatsafety.org
USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service, www.usda.fsis.gov
©
March 2006 American Meat Institute
