McLean County Farm Bureau

USDA TO SHIFT SOME INSPECTOR TASKS TO PORK PLANT WORKERS – IN EVERYTHING BUT NAME –

A long-running test program in which employees at certain hog plants perform tasks similar to those done by federal inspectors is catching criticism. Several food safety lawyers, Democratic members of Congress and a former agriculture official say that the USDA is using sleight-of-hand tactics to get around legal mandates that have been in place for more than a century. When plant employees perform various food safety work under the program, the USDA says they are “sorting” and “removing” or “disposing” of the meat, not inspecting or condemning it. The shift in language is central to the USDA’s efforts to make the most dramatic changes to federal meat-inspection policy since 1906. (The Washington Post)