Posts categorized as food

WIN: After years of grassroots organizing, Gov. O’Malley signs bill making Maryland the first state to ban arsenic in poultry production.

Statement from Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter

Washington, D.C. – “The budget proposed today by President Obama for fiscal year 2013 contains cuts to critical food safety programs, particularly the agency responsible for meat and poultry inspection, the Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
 
“Under this proposed budget, FSIS will take a cut in appropriations for the second year in a row. The President’s proposed FY 2013 budget assumes the approval of a new rule that would privatize key consumer protection activities in large poultry slaughter plants to save the agency $12.9 million. However, this controversial scheme to shift poultry inspection responsibilities to company employees is still in the proposed-rule stage and the public comment period is still open.

“FSIS has never fully evaluated a pilot program testing this type of inspection program. It is irresponsible for the administration to proceed with the implementation of this privatized inspection system until all the facts are collected about whether it can achieve the same level of consumer protection as traditional inspection. Today at the USDA’s budget briefing, Food & Water Watch presented a petition signed by over 8,000 consumers opposed to the privatized poultry inspection proposal.
 
“The proposed budget also calls for new user fees that will require congressional approval. One of the proposals, to require companies to pay FSIS for costs incurred after the company has failed to meet food safety standards, has some merit. According to the agency, it cost FSIS $172,424 to conduct its investigation into the largest Class I recall in its history, when 36 million pounds of ground turkey produced by Cargill was recalled due to contamination with antibiotic-resistant salmonella that sickened 136 consumers and caused one death.

“Companies involved in recalls should be compelled to reimburse the government for the investigation and recovery of recalled product. We are very concerned, however, about how another proposal for an inspection user fee will be implemented. Inspection is a public health function that should be performed by a government agency. We do not support inspection fees that would compromise the integrity of the inspection process by making companies a major funder of routine government inspections.
 
“The President’s proposed budget would cut appropriations for the FDA and relies on registration fees for a significant piece of FDA’s funding. The FDA has many new responsibilities under the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act that require more resources for the agency. But it remains to be seen if registration fees are an appropriate way to make up this funding gap. We would certainly not support using money generated by registration fees to implement the certification of private third-party auditors or to continue to throw additional money at state inspection programs that are not working.”

Contact: Anna Ghosh, 415-293-9905, aghosh(at)fwwatch(dot)org

Statement by Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director of Food & Water Watch

“The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the U.S. Department of Commerce are co-hosting two days of meetings this week with the intention of reducing regulations to encourage more trade between the U.S. and Canada. The first day of the meeting is being held at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which gives an indication of who would benefit from the changes being considered.
 
“The proposals, which were developed by the Obama and Harper administrations, include reducing or eliminating the regulations for imported meat, poultry and egg products from Canada. One of the proposals is to allow imports from Canada to go without inspection at the border and allow imported meat, poultry and egg products to be sent directly to U.S. processing plants. This is an unacceptable change that abandons USDA’s responsibility to U.S consumers.
 
“The reason that the USDA border inspection system was put into place to begin with was to prevent contaminated meat from entering the country and to make sure that trucks from Canada are transporting meat under sanitary conditions. Recently USDA import inspectors on the Canadian border turned away a truck transporting meat from Canada and a drum containing a toxic chemical in the same truck compartment. This is just one example of why U.S. consumers need imported meat to go through inspection at the border.
 
“Also, we understand that there is a proposal being considered that would have so-called “trusted traders” escape border inspection altogether, based on their food safety track record. We believe this violates the Federal Meat Inspection Act, the Poultry Products Inspection Act, and the Egg Products Inspection Act because products would be put into commerce without inspection.

“While the U.S.’s food safety track record is far from perfect, Canada has also experienced serious food borne illness outbreaks. Canada is still reeling from a 2008 outbreak involving Listeria monocytogenes that killed 22 people. The response to that crisis involved hiring over 200 inspectors, but on January 16 of this year, the Canadian government announced that it was eliminating those positions. Nearly half of our imported meat products come from Canada and the USDA Inspector General has been critical of the lax enforcement of U.S. meat and poultry regulations by Canadian food safety officials. Eliminating U.S. inspections of meat poultry and egg products from Canada is unacceptable and we urge the Obama administration to drop this proposal that prioritizes trade relations above consumer protection.” 

Contact: Anna Ghosh, aghosh(at)fwwatch(dot)org, 415-293-9905