Risking Food Safety, FDA to allow Slaughterhouses to Self Police

Another brilliant move from the administration that appoints oil company executives as stewards of the environment, and enemies of education as those tasked with protecting it.

More than a century ago, Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle” exposed unsafe and unsanitary conditions in our nation’s slaughterhouses. Sinclair singled out breakneck line speeds as a key source of misery, noting, “The main thing the men wanted was to put a stop to the habit of speeding up, they were trying their best to force a lessening of the pace, for there were some, they said, who could not keep up with it, whom it was killing.”

Sinclair’s stomach-churning account led Congress to create a new agency in charge of food safety in slaughterhouses. Among the reforms implemented were rules to slow down line speeds so that government inspectors could ensure that diseased or feces-covered meat and poultry did not end up on consumers’ plates. Now, if the Trump administration gets its way, pork slaughterhouses will be allowed to drastically increase their line speeds, with potentially disastrous results for workers and consumers.

A new rule, finalized today, would reduce the number of government food safety inspectors in pork plants by 40 percent and remove most of the remaining inspectors from production lines. In their place, a smaller number of company employees — who are not required to receive any training — would conduct the “sorting” tasks that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) previously referred to as “inspection.” The rule would also allow companies to design their own microbiological testing programs to measure food safety rather than requiring companies to meet the same standard.

Link

Just something to think about the next time you're enjoying that pork chop or some BBQ. I'm sure it'll be totally ok to let the people who produce our food self regulate themselves. It's not like the FDA was created because of companies failure to self police themselves or anything like that..

a reply to: underwerks

Skip the grocery store chain meat counter; visit your local butcher shop. Problem mostly solved. Processed factory food these days is an ever growing menace.

a reply to: TonyS

I'm with you on only getting your meat from an actual butcher. How many people are going to do that though? As opposed to just holding their nose and buying what they usually do at Kroger or Walmart? Not everyone can afford that.

As with most rollbacks of regulation this will mostly effect the people who can't afford to shop around. Which at this point is most of America.

And that's not even mentioning where restaurants get the food they use from.

Yay Salmonella! Corporations have always been trustworthy when it comes to keeping themselves in check, right? Yeah, we'll go with that as long as we can chalk it up as a win for Trump. People will cut off their nose in spite of their face as long as it means "sticking it to the libs". 🤣

a reply to: 3NL1GHT3N3D1

I'm wondering who the E.Coli constituency is.

Who really defends this.

a reply to: underwerks

Guess I suffer from the "local view" and extend it to a generalization. But, where I live, a great many people buy from the local butcher and have for generations. And its not all that more expensive, its just far better quality and much better variety. But this is small town West Texas where people like to buy locally produced beef, poultry and venison. They just buy it in smaller quantities. Big families also buy from the Butcher shops adjacent "Smoke House" where they can buy smoked meats and brisketts and such.

I guess its a question of where you live. Not much demand for fresh venison, Chorizo sausage, menudo or goat meat in the cities.

a reply to: TonyS

I'm from small town Kentucky, and most all small butcher shops along with other small businesses have been closed since right after Wal-Mart came to town.

The ones that are left aren't comparable in price or as convenient as buying groceries while you get your oil changed. Ideally people would buy all their food from small shops, but with the coming of superstores a lot of smaller communities have become deserts when it comes to local shopping options.

originally posted by: TonyS
a reply to: underwerks

Skip the grocery store chain meat counter; visit your local butcher shop. Problem mostly solved. Processed factory food these days is an ever growing menace.

I totally agree with butchers and local stores. This is a bigger problem than that.
I just got a recall for flour that might have e coli. Food safety is getting scary.

With technology these things should be getting better not worse. In no cases should a company get to regulate itself when human death can occur so easily.

I spoke with a FDA inspector years before Trump. Here was her advice to me. Don't ever ever ever buy any food that is cut by employee in a store, like fruit or veggie trays. I guess those are absolutely the worst of the worst. The less processing of any kind the better.

a reply to: underwerks

Wow, really sorry to hear that. Its almost the exact opposite in Texas. Butcher shops and smoke houses are doing a booming business here. I first became aware of it working in deep East Texas where families routinely go to the butcher shop, place an order on cuts of a side of beef and pick up the next day, take the cuts home and put them in the freezer for future use. Almost every family has a big lateral freezer and some have two. Our local Walmart isnt doing very well in the grocery department.

Then of course theres big business for the butcher shops during hunting season as well.

Guess its all about location.

On the surface, it sounds bad. However, the actual reality could be quite different.

I work in finance/banking and a lot of the regulations we work under are mindless and do nothing to protect consumers. However, it generates a ton of paperwork and adds a lot of unnecessary cost in the system (that consumers ultimately wind up paying).

Everytime someone tries to rollback the regulations you get cries about "predatory lending" etc even though none of the regulations that need to be rolled back actually protect consumers.

The problem is the politicians and consumers don't understand the inside baseball and it is far easier to just accept said regulations instead of trying to explain in soundbites why they don't work.

I wonder if this is a similar situation.

originally posted by: JAGStorm

originally posted by: TonyS
a reply to: underwerks

Skip the grocery store chain meat counter; visit your local butcher shop. Problem mostly solved. Processed factory food these days is an ever growing menace.

I totally agree with butchers and local stores. This is a bigger problem than that.
I just got a recall for flour that might have e coli. Food safety is getting scary.

With technology these things should be getting better not worse. In no cases should a company get to regulate itself when human death can occur so easily.

I spoke with a FDA inspector years before Trump. Here was her advice to me. Don't ever ever ever buy any food that is cut by employee in a store, like fruit or veggie trays. I guess those are absolutely the worst of the worst. The less processing of any kind the better.

From purely a statistical standpoint, it would seem to me that having large producers in general would be more susceptible to food contamination vs small butchers, etc.

As always though, people are addicted to low prices. We have a local butcher here but they are about $10/lb more for say steak than than going to Whole Foods or local grocery chain. However, the steak is sourced from local farms and butchered in the shop. You know where the meat is coming from. Much higher quality.

a reply to: JAGStorm

Saw that flour recall and was just amazed. Weird crap going on there and you are right, you would think that with automation things would have gotten better, but instead they are worse.

Dont even think about getting me talking about grocery store chicken. That stuff is just plain gross!

a reply to: Edumakated

We aren't talking about finance/banking, we're talking about the food industry and food safety. Where people can die if companies aren't regulated properly.

The bottom line is that at the end of the day companies only care about their bottom line. Where is the incentive to produce clean food when there are no repercussions if you don't? Where is the incentive to properly self regulate yourself when it's going to make you less money?

I don't think this is one of those rare cases where the free market will take care of it. The FDA and the USDA were created precisely because companies wouldn't properly police their food safety standards. And now that is being dismantled in pursuit of bigger profits. At the risk of consumers.

a reply to: underwerks

And now that is being dismantled in pursuit of bigger profits. At the risk of consumers.

And that is an awful thing! And maybe if more people quit buying processed foods at the grocery store, the producers would get the message?

originally posted by: TonyS
a reply to: underwerks

And now that is being dismantled in pursuit of bigger profits. At the risk of consumers.

And that is an awful thing! And maybe if more people quit buying processed foods at the grocery store, the producers would get the message?

Maybe so. But I'd rather not count on that to make sure the food I buy is clean.

originally posted by: underwerks
a reply to: Edumakated

We aren't talking about finance/banking, we're talking about the food industry and food safety. Where people can die if companies aren't regulated properly.

The bottom line is that at the end of the day companies only care about their bottom line. Where is the incentive to produce clean food when there are no repercussions if you don't? Where is the incentive to properly self regulate yourself when it's going to make you less money?

I don't think this is one of those rare cases where the free market will take care of it. The FDA and the USDA were created precisely because companies wouldn't properly police their food safety standards. And now that is being dismantled in pursuit of bigger profits. At the risk of consumers.

That's an emotional response...

The incentive is that your company winds up going out of business if a consumer gets sick.

I am NOT saying regulations aren't needed. Just saying I want the actual facts in regards to the regulations and if they are effective, etc. As I pointed, there is often a lot of hysteria and spin in regards to what certain regulations actually do and if they are needed.

I am actually in the process of starting a food business. The regulatory burden is HUGE.

killing people with unsafe meat to own the libs

originally posted by: Edumakated

originally posted by: underwerks
a reply to: Edumakated

We aren't talking about finance/banking, we're talking about the food industry and food safety. Where people can die if companies aren't regulated properly.

The bottom line is that at the end of the day companies only care about their bottom line. Where is the incentive to produce clean food when there are no repercussions if you don't? Where is the incentive to properly self regulate yourself when it's going to make you less money?

I don't think this is one of those rare cases where the free market will take care of it. The FDA and the USDA were created precisely because companies wouldn't properly police their food safety standards. And now that is being dismantled in pursuit of bigger profits. At the risk of consumers.

That's an emotional response...

The incentive is that your company winds up going out of business if a consumer gets sick.

I am NOT saying regulations aren't needed. Just saying I want the actual facts in regards to the regulations and if they are effective, etc. As I pointed, there is often a lot of hysteria and spin in regards to what certain regulations actually do and if they are needed.

I am actually in the process of starting a food business. The regulatory burden is HUGE.

A response being emotional doesn't mean it isn't valid. That being said, it isn't really an emotional response. The FDA and USDA were created solely because of companies failure to regulate themselves. That is a fact. And that is what is being rolled back here.

The regulatory burden on food businesses is huge, and for good reason. You can sicken or kill people by mishandling the products you sell. Can you say the same about refinancing someones mortgage?

a reply to: underwerks

It doesn't matter, we are all going to be dead in ten years anyway. We are not supposed to be eating meat anymore according to environmentalists, you know to save tha Earf.

originally posted by: TonyS
a reply to: underwerks

Skip the grocery store chain meat counter; visit your local butcher shop. Problem mostly solved. Processed factory food these days is an ever growing menace.

No local butcher around here. There is a whole foods shop that may have one, but it is the same when you go in. It is all on display and you can buy what is already cut or leave. I got a few steaks from them once and the flavor was less than what I got from publix. So not worth the extra price IMO.