Food Safety Magazine - June/July 2013
Food Safety Magazine - June/July 2013
Food Safety Magazine - June/July 2013
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MEAT<br />
before slaughter; (2) mandatory postmortem<br />
inspection of every carcass; (3)<br />
sanitary standards established for slaughterhouses<br />
and meat processing plants<br />
and (4) authorized U.S. Department of<br />
Agriculture (USDA) ongoing monitoring<br />
and inspection of slaughter and processing<br />
operations. 11 After 1906, many<br />
additional laws that further standardized<br />
the meat industry and its inspection<br />
were passed.<br />
Hazard Analysis and Critical Control<br />
Points is an additional management system<br />
that addresses food safety through<br />
the analysis and control of biological,<br />
chemical and physical hazards, from raw<br />
material production, procurement and<br />
handling to manufacturing, distribution<br />
and consumption of the finished<br />
product. 12<br />
As a result of stringent regulations<br />
and many advances through industryled<br />
initiatives, large-scale meat processing<br />
operations have very rigorous foodsafety<br />
systems in place; otherwise, they<br />
wouldn’t be in business today. Moreover,<br />
federal inspectors’ legally required<br />
presence in slaughterhouses and processing<br />
plants every day monitoring systems<br />
for both animal welfare violations and<br />
food safety issues should add a significant<br />
layer of confidence for consumers<br />
about meat, poultry and egg products.<br />
Yet this confidence does not always<br />
resonate with consumers, which may be<br />
due, in large part to consumers not understanding<br />
agriculture in general. In a<br />
recent poll conducted by the Pork Network,<br />
respondents were asked the question,<br />
“How do you believe consumers<br />
feel about agriculture?” Approximately<br />
78 percent of respondents felt “consumers<br />
like agriculture but don’t understand<br />
best-management practices.” 13 Interestingly,<br />
no one agreed that consumers<br />
“like agriculture and understand bestmanagement<br />
practices,” and 22 percent<br />
of respondents answered that consumers<br />
“are negative about agriculture in general.”<br />
Obviously, there is work to do to<br />
help the public understand livestock<br />
production and the practices associated<br />
with it. Research shows farmers themselves<br />
are highly respected and admired by consumers, so capitalizing on this positive<br />
image would seem a logical step forward.<br />
Antibiotics: The Next Frontier for Debate<br />
One of the issues most misunderstood by consumers, and thus one of the largest<br />
issues facing the meat industry, is antibiotic use in food animals.<br />
In late February <strong>2013</strong>, two leading Democrat members of Congress, Henry Waxman<br />
(CA) and Louise Slaughter (NY), introduced legislation aimed at providing<br />
more detail on the amount and use of antimicrobial drugs given to animals raised<br />
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