Source: Rita Jane Gabbett, MEATINGPLACE, 9/11/17


The National Chicken Council has petitioned USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service to implement a waiver system to permit young chicken slaughter establishments participating in the New Poultry Inspection System (NPIS) and the Salmonella Initiative Program (SIP) to operate without the line speed limitations imposed under NPIS.

Specifically, NCC requested that FSIS structure the waiver program as follows:
• An eligible establishment would have to participate in both NPIS and SIP
• The establishment would develop a process for monitoring and ensuring it is maintaining process control at its chosen line speed, along with corrective actions to regain process control if lost; and
• Thee agency would waive the line speed limitation and instead allow participating establishments to operate at any line speed at which they can maintain process control.
NCC noted that 20 plants participating in the HACCP-Based Inspection Models Project (HIMP) have been authorized to operate with line speeds up to 175 birds per minute since 2007, and FSIS has recognized that these plants provide the same or better levels of food safety than plants operating with a maximum line speed of 140 bird per minute.

“These establishments have proven that HIMP (and now NPIS) establishments can operate safely at the maximum speeds permitted, and there is no indication that higher line speeds would result in increased food safety or worker safety risk,” the petition stated.

Not so fast
Last month, 40 groups representing the public health, consumer protection, labor, employer and civil rights sectors are asking Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to oppose any increase in line speeds at U.S. poultry plants.

In a letter to Perdue, the groups said the current rate of 140 birds per minute already exposes poultry line workers to serious risk of injury. The groups also expressed alarm about a proposal from a Georgia congressman requesting that the speed be increased by 25 percent to 175 birds per minute.

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