THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, July 9, 1996 TAG: 9607090009
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: 90 lines
In the wake of bacteria-in-the-box outbreaks at fast-food restaurants and recurring illnesses caused by salmonella, the Clinton administration has proposed new meat-inspection guidelines.
Critics will complain that this is more overregulation by government, but it is really an overdue update of anachronistic methods. The need for inspection of meat was settled almost a century ago when The Jungle and other muckracking exposes of the food-processing industry revealed mortal dangers to consumers.
Since then, however, inspection has continued to be by the so-called sniff-and-poke method, a crude visual examination that no longer makes sense in an era of scientific testing. Under the new guidelines, food processors will test for dangerous E. coli bacteria and federal inspectors will examine meat for the salmonella bacteria that kills 4,000 a year.
That division of labor represents a compromise. The original proposals called for the government to do the E. coli testing as well. Instead, responsibility will be shared. The government will set standards and expect processing plants to meet minimum requirements.
Plants will identify critical points where contamination is likely and design an inspection regimen to catch problems at those checkpoints. A similar system was begun last year for fish, previously unregulated.
The cost of compliance to the food-processing industry is estimated at $80 million. When passed along to the consumer, that could be expected to increase the grocery bill by one-tenth of a cent per pound of meat.
That's a modest price to pay if it reduces contamination that can kill and that is also responsible for tens of thousands of never-diagnosed cases of food poisoning that consumers mistake for flu or other ills.
At present, 20 percent of chicken products and 49 percent of turkey products are infected with salmonella. The proposed program's aim would be to keep the problem from getting worse and ultimately to reduce the incidence of contamination. But consumers and food preparers need to learn how to handle meat to minimize the danger.
These guidelines are a step in the direction of a less-contaminated food supply, and sharing responsibility with the food processors makes sense. The remaining unanswered question is whether there will be enough USDA inspectors to monitor the program effectively.
At a guess, no. But the USDA presently supports one of the government's biggest bureaucracies, much of it now devoted to administering an antiquated price-support system. As that is cut back, some of the superfluous manpower should be shifted to inspection work that is far more easily justified and will better repay the taxpayer.
In the wake of bacteria-in-the-box outbreaks at fast-food restaurants and recurring illnesses caused by salmonella, the Clinton administration has proposed new meat-inspection guidelines.
Critics will complain that this is more overregulation by government, but it is really an overdue update of anachronistic methods. The need for inspection of meat was settled almost a century ago when The Jungle and other muckracking exposes of the food-processing industry revealed mortal dangers to consumers.
Since then, however, inspection has continued to be by the so-called sniff-and-poke method, a crude visual examination that no longer makes sense in an era of scientific testing. Under the new guidelines, food processors will test for dangerous E. coli bacteria and federal inspectors will examine meat for the salmonella bacteria that kill 4,000 a year.
That division of labor represents a compromise. The original proposals called for the government to do the E. coli testing as well. Instead, responsibility will be shared. The government will set standards and expect processing plants to meet minimum requirements.
Plants will identify critical points where contamination is likely and design an inspection regimen to catch problems at those checkpoints. A similar system was begun last year for fish, previously unregulated.
The cost of compliance to the food-processing industry is estimated at $80 million. When passed along to the consumer, that could be expected to increase the grocery bill by one-tenth of a cent per pound of meat.
That's a modest price to pay if it reduces contamination that can kill and that is also responsible for tens of thousands of never-diagnosed cases of food poisoning that consumers mistake for flu or other ills.
At present, 20 percent of chicken products and 49 percent of turkey products are infected with salmonella. The proposed program's aim would be to keep the problem from getting worse and ultimately to reduce the incidence of contamination. But consumers and food preparers need to learn how to handle meat to minimize the danger.
These guidelines are a step in the direction of a less-contaminated food supply, and sharing responsibility with the food processors makes sense. The remaining unanswered question is whether there will be enough USDA inspectors to monitor the program effectively.
At a guess, no. But the USDA presently supports one of the government's biggest bureaucracies, much of it now devoted to administering an antiquated price-support system. As that system is cut back, some of the superfluous manpower should be shifted to inspection work that is far more easily justified and will better repay the taxpayer. by CNB