The Federal Meat Inspection Act of 1906 established that the USDA, and eventually the Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS), would provide continuous, daily inspection of meat slaughter and further processing plants. Eventually, other acts by Congress established the same for poultry and egg products.

While the continuous, daily inspection is very clearly in place for slaughter plants, the same is rather nebulous for processing plants.

By law, all animals to be processed into food for human consumption must be examined in motion and at rest prior to slaughter, and all carcasses must be examined after the hide pull. Therefore, nothing happens in slaughter facilities unless the FSIS is there.

But for further processing plants, all that is required is a daily visit by an FSIS circuit rider. The visit can be anywhere from 30 minutes to a full 8 hour shift.

The “continuous” requirement is provided by the explanation that the inspector can drop in at any time of the day, so the plant has to operate as if the inspector were actually there for the full time they are in operation.

I was always OK with that arrangement, as full time, continuous inspection of a small plant making beef jerky or smoked hams would have increased the work force exponentially while doing nothing to assure safer food.

What I was not OK with was paying an inspector for three hours of drive time and only five hours of actual inspection in the 21^st century while everyone else has moved to electronic communications.

Most of the inspectors’ time in processing plants is record review. HACCP plans, temperature charts, culture results, etc.

Those records could be faxed or emailed to a central location where the inspector could visually do the exact same thing he or she would do if in the plant.

Before the inspectors’ union has a hissy fit, I do believe periodical inspection of the physical facility is important, but I also believe it can be done on an unannounced basis a few times a week and get the same results as “daily” inspection produces.

Seriously, what is there that needs to be seen five times a week in a jerky producing plant?

Less travel time, less mileage expense and a reduced inspection force translates into savings that could be utilized for more pathogen testing, more consumer education and more inspection for high risk processing facilities such as those producing ground beef and ground chicken products.

FSIS is already utilizing paper reviews for international exporters and has eliminated the annual inspection for most countries so why not use a similar process for domestic plants?

I think you know the answer to that question, don’t you?

FSIS and continuous, daily inspection

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