Food Safety, Humane Slaughter Laws Ignored, says USDA Inspector General

WASHINGTON, D.C. - A recent report from the USDA's Office of the Inspector General has found that the Food Safety and Inspection Service's (FSIS) enforcement policies do not deter swine slaughter plants from becoming repeat violators of the Federal Meat Inspection Act (FMIA). In a recent Huffington Post blog, Bruce Friedrich argues that this is evidence that the FSIS oversight system is "completely broken."

Also among the report's findings:

• Plants have repeatedly violated regulations with little or no consequence;
• In 8 of 30 plants visited, inspectors did not always examine internal organs of carcasses in accordance with FSIS inspection requirements, leading to less effective identification of tainted pork;
• FSIS inspectors did not take appropriate enforcement actions at 8 of 30 plants for violations of the Humane Method of Slaughter Act.

"Every year, roughly 150 million cattle and pigs are slaughtered in our nation's slaughterhouses, and the one measly law that attempts to ensure some small decrease in their abuse is all-but-ignored by the agency charged with enforcing it," Friedrich writes. "Even their top personnel don't understand what it says."

Read the full blog post, and the full report from the Office of the Inspector General.