Source: Tom Johnston, MEATINGPLACE, 6/25/19



The Office of the Inspector General is investigating whether USDA hid information and used flawed worker safety data to support the development of its modernized swine inspection system, according to a report by the Washington Post.

Phyllis Fong, USDA’s inspector general, told Congress members on Friday her office launched the investigation in response to concerns they raised in March, the Post reports, citing a letter that the newspaper obtained.

Currently pending is USDA’s proposed rule to shift some inspection duties in the nation’s pork plants so that companies take over online checks and federal inspectors focus their efforts on end-of-line food safety verification tasks.

The new inspection system is the result of some 25 years of research USDA conducted in hog and poultry plants, the same pilot project that led to the agency’s New Poultry Inspection System (NPIS). As of April, nearly 120 poultry processors had converted to NPIS.

USDA and industry proponents say the modernized inspection systems represent a more efficient use of government resources and home in on more critical functions that will improve food safety. But opponents equate the systems to letting the fox guard the hen house, and that allowances for increased slaughter line speeds are both a risk to food and worker safety.

Lawmakers called for the OIG probe in March after a review by two university experts who concluded that “it is impossible” for USDA to “draw any statistically valid conclusion about worker injury rate differences,” according to the Post.

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