“Pink slime” isn’t the only industrialized meat treated with unappetizing chemicals. Chlorine, tri-sodium phosphate (normally used to clean cement) and hypobromous acid (used to clean swimming pools) are used to treat poultry for salmonella and sterilize feces that might still be on carcasses because the production line speeds are too excessive.

Consumer advocates and concerned citizens joined USDA poultry inspectors to protest this program on the steps of the USDA. Read more on our blog.

As our food system becomes more industrialized, we increasingly rely on chemical cocktails to keep bacteria and other pathogens under control. Since labeling isn’t required, consumers are left in the dark about what chemicals their food may have been treated with. But this is only the beginning of what consumers don’t know about their meat. 

HIMP — the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP)-based Inspection Models Project – isn’t as memorable of a catch phrase as pink slime, but its implications are more sickening. Since 1998, the USDA has been experimenting with this program that gives the job of monitoring the safety and quality of poultry to the poultry processors and drastically increases the number of birds federal inspectors must examine at a time.

Take Action

Just like the fox shouldn’t guard the hen house, employees in poultry processing plants shouldn’t do their own food safety inspections. But unfortunately, that’s just what Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is proposing.

We call this “privatized inspection” and we know that line speeds are too fast, and employees are untrained to stop unsafe products from leaving the poultry processing plant and reaching a store near you.

Ask Secretary Vilsack to reject “privatized” meat inspection:

Your Letter:

Dear Secretary Vilsack,

I urge you to drop the proposed New Poultry Inspection System (Docket #FSIS-2012-0016)). USDA should not be privatizing poultry inspection by allowing company employees to perform inspection tasks that are supposed to be done by USDA inspectors.

The HIMP pilot program that has been used to test this privatized model has never been independently evaluated and the little information that has been released shows that these plants run at high speeds and company employees are not able to enforce regulations. For example, the records show that bile, sores, scabs, feathers, and digestive tract tissue are often not being properly removed from chicken carcasses. And there has been no analysis done to show whether the plants in this program are producing food that is as safe as product from traditionally inspected plants.

I oppose any effort to take USDA inspectors away from inspecting meat and poultry. The job of protecting consumers should be done by government employees, as the law requires. Giving this critical responsibility to poultry companies is unacceptable.

Customize your letter.

When you take action on this issue, we’ll keep you informed on this and other important issues.