Auditors dispute claims that new inspections make meat safer

WASHINGTON -- The government plans to go forward with an experimental meat inspection system despite test results that showed some plants had more problems with contaminated products than before.

Under the new system, federal inspectors no longer do hand checks of carcasses, leaving that job to company employees. Inspectors are supposed to spend more time monitoring plant sanitation equipment, overseeing plant workers and sampling products for contamination.

Five of 11 chicken processing plants participating in the program had higher rates of salmonella contamination than they had before, according to a report by the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress.

Test results also showed higher rates of defects such as bruises on chickens produced by many of the 11 plants, GAO said, disputing assertions by the Agriculture Department that the program had resulted in safer products.

Agriculture Department officials said Wednesday that they won't make the system mandatory but plan to expand it to new facilities on a voluntary basis. Last year, the department said the system had worked so well that they would expand it to all 200 poultry processors nationwide.

"This is an improved system, but it depends on a lot of things, including plant commitment," said Margaret Glavin, acting administrator of USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service.

'Recipe for disaster'

Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, said USDA's decision to continue the project "makes no sense" and "is a recipe for a food safety disaster." Harkin requested the GAO study along with the panel's ranking Republican, Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana.

Consumer Federation of America, a leading advocacy group on food-safety issues, withdrew its support for the project, citing the GAO findings.

"The only reason for the administration to go forward after the GAO report is to give in to the poultry industry's pressure to run their production lines faster. Faster line speeds results in more fecal material on poultry," said the federation's Carol Tucker Foreman, who oversaw USDA's food safety programs during the Carter administration.

Data collected by an independent testing firm showed that fecal material, which can carry dangerous bacteria, continued to show up on chicken in 10 of the 11 plants using the new inspection system, GAO said.

As many as seven of the 11 plants had higher rates of some quality defects, problems such as bruises and stray feathers, that pose no health hazard, the report said.