News

USDA sued for hog slaughter line speeds (correction)

Public Citizen and United Food and Commercial Workers have filed a lawsuit in federal court in Minneapolis saying a new USDA rule will risk workers safety at pork slaughter and processing plants.

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of United Food and Commercial Workers and three of its local unions, wants the court to set aside the USDA rule that lifts the maximum line speeds and reduces the number of government safety workers by 40%.

CORRECTED: In an interview with Brownfield last month, USDA FSIS Deputy Undersecretary Mindy Brashears said there would be NO reduction in public health veterinarian inspectors under the new, modernized rule for swine slaughter inspections.

The FSIS tells Brownfield Ag News: “There are more than 7,500 inspectors in FSIS. If all 35 market hog plants converted to NSIS, which we estimate would require 147 fewer food safety inspectors, the total reduction in FSIS inspectors would be less than 2 percent. FSIS will continue 100% carcass-by-carcass inspection and will also increase the number of offline food safety verification tasks performed.

If the 35 market hog establishments that FSIS predicts to adopt the new inspection system do so, then the number of offline inspectors would increase from one to two, meaning there would be an additional 35-offline Consumer Safety Inspectors, which are higher-graded positions than on line Food Inspectors.”