The USDA has been conducting a "pilot" meat inspection program since 1997 and they have yet to evaluate the effectiveness of the program. The program, the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point-based
Inspection Models Project, commonly referred to as HIMP, has been in operation in five large hog plants. It allows the plants to increase the speed of the processing lines, cuts the number of USDA
safety inspectors at each plant in half and replaces them with private
inspectors employed by meat companies.
There is a slight problem with the program. Three of the plants were among the 10 worst offenders in the country for health and safety violations,
with serious lapses that included failing to remove fecal matter from
meat. The plant with the worst record by far was one of the five in the pilot
program. The safety record of the three aforementioned plants were worse than those at hundreds of other
U.S. swine plants that continued to operate under the traditional
system, which features slower processing speeds and about double the
number of government inspectors.
Is the USDA working for us or the pork producers?
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