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Harvest Public Media is a reporting collaboration focused on issues of food, fuel and field. Based at KCUR in Kansas City, Harvest covers these agriculture-related topics through an expanding network of reporters and partner stations throughout the Midwest.Most Harvest Public Media stories begin with radio- regular reports are aired on member stations in the Midwest. But Harvest also explores issues through online analyses, television documentaries and features, podcasts, photography, video, blogs and social networking. They are committed to the highest journalistic standards. Click here to read their ethics standards.Harvest Public Media was launched in 2010 with the support of a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Today, the collaboration is supported by CPB, the partner stations, and contributions from underwriters and individuals.Tri States Public Radio is an associate partner of Harvest Public Media. You can play an important role in helping Harvest Public Media and Tri States Public Radio improve our coverage of food, field and fuel issues by joining the Harvest Network.

Citing Food Safety, USDA Proposes New Hog-Slaughter Rules That Give Industry More Control

Amy Mayer/Harvest Public Media
Pork slaughter and processing plants like this one in Marshalltown, Iowa, could see changes to how federal inspections are conducted.

The federal government wants to revamp hog slaughter inspections, proposing changes that were more than 15 years in the works and are being touted as ways to improve food safety. Critics argue they hand too much responsibility to meatpackers and might put workers' safety at risk.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the proposals this month. They would, among other things, change the frequency of microbial testing for food-borne pathogens but let the packing plants select which bacteria they monitor.

“We would be removing the generic E. coli (testing) requirement and really allowing establishments to choose what they want to sample for,” according to Carmen Rottenberg, acting deputy undersecretary for food safety at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, “because they’re in the best position to identify process control.”

Sampling would have to occur once just after slaughter and again after the carcass has been chilled, Rottenberg says, which is a change from current policies that require just one sample.

Pork-packing plants also could choose whether their employees do the first visual test for blemishes or visible cancers on incoming animals or continue to have federal inspectors do that. Regardless, government workers still would inspect every animal that gets butchered.

“These regulations are absolutely for the benefit of packers,” Seattle-based food safety attorney Bill Marler says. But he notes the changes could improve food safety due to the greater emphasis on microbial testing, which wasn’t as available or reliable when the old inspection rules were created decades ago.

The change also would lift a cap on how fast pigs can be processed, meaning there’d be no limit. That’s potentially beneficial for the industry.

“From a food safety point of view, if you get better results and if the line speed goes up, that’s okay with me,” Marler says. “If you’re not getting better results, bacterial results, then the line speed needs to slow down.”

The National Pork Producers Council, an industry group, backs the proposals.

“We have been waiting for this rule for a long time and we really do think it is a step forward across multiple fronts for the industry,” says Dan Kovich, the council’s director of science and technology.

He says the changes allow the government to focus on pathogen control, sanitation and humane handling of the animals.

“[Food Safety and Inspection Service] is going to be able to use their inspection resources for doing more of the things that help us control those unseen things,” Kovich says,”versus spending their time on the line looking for those things that plant employees are able to look for and sort out before it gets to the point of the FSIS inspection.”

But there are groups who believe the changes could be detrimental to workers. Left-leaning government watchdog group Food and Water Watch says in a statement: “This plan would put worker safety, humane slaughter compliance and food safety performance at risk.”

None of the proposals will go into effect immediately. They first must be published in the Federal Register, then go through a 60-day public comment period.

Follow Amy on Twitter: @AgAmyinAmes

Amy Mayer is a reporter based in Ames. She covers agriculture and is part of the Harvest Public Media collaboration. Amy worked as an independent producer for many years and also previously had stints as weekend news host and reporter at WFCR in Amherst, Massachusetts and as a reporter and host/producer of a weekly call-in health show at KUAC in Fairbanks, Alaska. Amy’s work has earned awards from SPJ, the Alaska Press Club and the Massachusetts/Rhode Island AP. Her stories have aired on NPR news programs such as Morning Edition, All Things Considered and Weekend Edition and on Only A Game, Marketplace and Living on Earth. She produced the 2011 documentary Peace Corps Voices, which aired in over 160 communities across the country and has written for The New York Times, Boston Globe, Real Simple and other print outlets. Amy served on the board of directors of the Association of Independents in Radio from 2008-2015.