Editorial: Better meat safety program is needed

Thursday, June 22, 2000 | 9:26 a.m.

Four years ago the U.S. Department of Agriculture initiated a revamping of its meat inspection program that was long overdue. Rather than continuing to rely on detecting contaminated meat by solely poking and sniffing as it had done before, the USDA instead turned to science-based procedures, requiring meat and poultry processors to do more testing for deadly microbes.

While there have been improvements, the USDA inspector general released a report Wednesday that found the department needs to be tougher in its inspections and require verification that the tests are in fact being completed. One of the concerns expressed by the inspector general was that USDA inspectors allowed some meat and poultry plants to limit inspectors' presence to certain areas, which in effect curtailed the government's ability to ensure the products were meeting government standards.

Failure to properly inspect meat and poultry can have tragic consequences to public health, even resulting in death in the most serious cases. These occurrences, though, often can be prevented since we know so much more today as to what causes food-borne illnesses. The key now is for the government to effectively apply these scientific advances to the testing of meat and poultry, so the public can eat these products with the assurance that they won't become ill.

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