USDA Vacancies Mean U.S. Food Supply Not Inspected

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Download Inspector Survey Excerpts

Food & Water Watch sent a letter today to U.S. Department of Agriculture Under Secretary for Food Safety Dr. Richard Raymond outlining our concerns about agency’s lack of transparency on meat inspector vacancies. Food & Water Watch is concerned that USDA’s Food Safety Inspection Service is not meeting its statutory obligation of daily inspection at meat plants.

On April 2, 2007, USDA admitted to Congress that several hundred plants have been officially under less than daily inspection for more than 30 years. According to information Food & Water Watch has been receiving from FSIS inspection personnel, that is likely just the tip of the iceberg. There is evidence that an equal or greater number of plants are “unofficially” not visited daily because the agency has refused to fill long-term inspector vacancies.

Food & Water Watch included excerpts from a survey of inspectors throughout the country who have had to cover multiple-plant assignments for days or weeks at a time because the agency does not fill vacant inspector positions, making it impossible for the remaining inspectors to visit every plant every day.

Sample excerpts:

“I am assigned to nightshift (10pm-6:30am) at [location redacted]. My supervisor wants to put down that some procedures have not been performed because we have been short for over four weeks now”

“There has been a vacancy in [location redacted] for over a year and they pull the inspector from the [location redacted] circuit when they run short. Just last week he had all 3 of his plants go without inspection for 3 days and in my 3 years here there are at least 100 days they have used him there and his plants have gone without inspection.”

“There is one that is supposed to stop daily but is unable to because of his other assignments. The agency is going to say that it doesn't go uninspected because there is a vet there that is performing these duties.”

For more information, contact the pressroom or the following Food & Water Watch experts: Tony Corbo -202-797-6548, Felicia Nestor - 201-330-1618