Source: Tom Johnston, MEATINGPLACE, 5/26/17


U.S. Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.) has sent a letter to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue urging USDA to increase maximum line speeds in poultry plants.

Collins wants USDA to reconsider allowing 175 birds per minute as the maximum line speed, which had been proposed under the HACCP-based Inspection Models Project (HIMP) that would culminate in the New Poultry Inspection System (NPIS) published in 2014 but was reduced to 140 birds per minute in the new system as a compromise with its opponents who argued higher speeds was dangerous for workers.

Collins said years of data have shown that the new food safety system has proven to reduce carcass contamination even at 175 birds per minute, and that the higher speed does not compromise worker safety.

“NPIS was designed to be a voluntary program, in which poultry plants would be allowed greater operational flexibility in exchange for subjecting their operations to greater regulatory food safety scrutiny. With the line speed cap in place, however, substantially fewer plants have transitioned to NPIS than previously anticipated, leaving potential food safety gains on the table,” he wrote in the letter.

Raising the maximum allowable line speeds will put U.S. poultry producers on a level playing field with their counterparts in South America, Asia, Canada and Europe.

For Collins’ state of Georgia, poultry production generates more than $18 billion for the state economy and $10.9 billion for his district (Ninth) annually. 

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