I was at a processing plant last week and had the pleasure of chatting with several of the employees, most of whom had been there 20+ years. Yes, you heard me right, 20+ years. I couldn’t believe it. I worked in quality and food safety for three years, and I felt like I had more than enough. Of course, back then, I had six employees and HACCP was just starting. Now these quality/food safety managers have 30-40 employees and a lot more paperwork.

The folks at the plant had a good laugh at me because I lasted a whole “three years” in processing. They have a point. Why did I leave? Processors have it hard, and quality/food safety employees have it really hard. There are so many considerations when it comes to food safety and quality (can’t leave out quality): HACCP, prerequisite programs, sanitation, operational processes, customer specifications, employees, supply chain issues, labor issues, sustainability programs, labeling, consumer groups ... all while keeping supplies available (with options) and consumers fed. Also, if we think about poultry processing, it is a highly regulated industry: USDA-FSIS, AMS (even as a voluntary program), EPA, OSHA, etc etc etc. It can be exhausting. I am exhausted just writing this, remembering all the Saturdays I worked and all the Aggie games I missed — all while trying to raise a family.

To add complexity to this situation, there are some threats and vulnerabilities we face as an industry that make it an even harder place to work. I think the biggest threat we face is labor shortage. We just do not have enough people to work in our industry to keep up with increasing consumer demand for high quality and safe products. We have never taken short cuts, but we have moved to more automated processes to ensure quality and safety. Hand deboning operations are far and few between, and we have made concessions by getting rid of hand deboning and using more automated systems which can have decreased meat quality and lower yield.

Another threat is consumers and their desire to be sustainable. While I do believe we all have to do our part to keep pollution and waste to a minimum, there is a time and place. Neighborhoods of thousands of people will water their lawns unnecessarily, but they want the industry to decrease water usage when processing chickens — water which, I might add, is reused, just not in food production. It makes me wonder if sustainability is more of a what can “you” do instead of what can “I” do mentality. Reducing water, reducing natural resources (gas) are all great ideas until there is less water to wash the chicken during processing or less natural gas to continuously heat water during processing or sanitation to reduce fat and protein remnants.

A vulnerability we face is our structure. The poultry industry, although vertically integrated, it is still very siloed. There are so many components — breeders, live production, processors, further processors, sanitation, food safety, quality, sustainability, management, accounting, etc. — and sometimes they may not all work together as much as we would like. Although I do believe that communication is improving, there are still some siloes. Live production has a totally different overall goal when compared to processing, but we do have to work together to ensure quality and safety.

It’s a tough job, and in my three years in processing I learned that it takes a special kind of person to work in quality and safety in poultry processing plants. Bless y’all for doing it!

Three years, a lifetime experience

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