Better Burgers Through Chemistry

October 1996

EXECUTIVE MEMO

Better Burgers Through Chemistry

nce upon a time, the Food Safety and Inspection Service was up to its armpits in carcasses. The standard method of inspecting meat was by feeling it, smelling it and looking at it to detect fecal contamination, defects or disease. Now, FSIS is turning to science, and is making 6,200 meat plants, not the 7,000 FSIS inspectors, responsible for guaranteeing the safety of their products.

Under new guidelines announced by the Clinton Administration in July, FSIS will begin testing meat for salmonella. Plants will be required to test for E. coli O157:H7, and to adopt the hazard analysis and critical control points (HACCP) system to identify points during meat processing where contamination can occur. In addition, FSIS will hold all plants to standard operating procedures to ensure clean facilities and equipment.

In statements announcing the new procedures, Clinton Administration officials said they're shifting from enforcement-focused regulation to a more cooperative approach. "Our objective is to get compliance and to get safer meat, not to close down factories or slaughterhouses and plants," said Sally Katzen, administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the Office of Management and Budget. "So part of our approach here is to work with the industry."

"We're going to make sure that the general atmosphere is clean," said Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman. "We're not going to micromanage what the door is going to look like or what the bathroom is going to look like."

In part, the idea is to wean meat plants from relying too much on inspectors to police standards, said Michael Taylor, FSIS administrator. "An essential problem of the current system is that the lines of responsibility are blurred and we haven't defined clearly, for example, the slaughter plant's responsibility for reducing harmful bacteria. . . . As a result, sometimes the plant has relied too much on the government inspector." As inspectors move from sniffing and poking to overseeing company plans and testing for bacteria, FSIS will reorganize. Management staff is to fall 20 percent by 1999, 46 field management offices will be consolidated into 18 and 13 headquarters organizations will meld into seven.