The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is requesting comments on its draft guidance for controlling Salmonella in hog slaughter facilities. Intended to “provide information on best practices to prevent, eliminate or reduce levels of Salmonella on hogs at all stages of slaughter and dressing,” FSIS issued the guidance in response to recent Salmonella outbreaks implicating pork. Stating that facilities improving contamination control at appropriate processing locations will “likely produce raw pork products that have fewer pathogens, including Salmonella,” the Salmonella Action Plan describes steps involved in the hog slaughter process and production of raw products, with each step targeting best practice recommendations for Salmonella contamination control. It also includes information on farm rearing and transport intended for establishments to share with their suppliers and producers. Comments will be accepted until March 7, 2014. See Federal Register, January 6, 2014. Meanwhile, a report from the Pew Charitable Trusts argues that FSIS…
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Speaking during a North American Meat Association conference in Chicago, Canada Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz reportedly called on the United States to resolve a dispute over country-of-origin labeling (COOL) requirements for pork and beef by including provisions in the Farm Bill currently under consideration in the U.S. Congress. Ritz claimed that the rules, now before a World Trade Organization (WTO) compliance panel to decide whether provisions found in violation of WTO obligations now conform since they were revised, have cost Canada more than $1 billion annually. He also indicated that Canada has already prepared a list of retaliatory measures it will take if WTO rules in its favor. National Farmers Union President Roger Johnson reportedly bristled at the minister’s remarks, saying “Recent threats by the Canadian Agriculture Minister are unjustified and out of line. As a sovereign nation, we should not take direction from Canada. They do not dictate what…
A federal court in the District of Columbia has dismissed, for lack of standing, a lawsuit filed by the Humane Society of the United States and several other plaintiffs against the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), challenging the secretary’s approval of the National Pork Board’s purchase of the slogan “Pork, The Other White Meat” from the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC). The Humane Soc’y of the U.S. v. Vilsack, No. 12-1582 (D.D.C., decided September 25, 2013). Details about the lawsuit appear in Issue 455 of this Update. According to the court, the individual pork farmer plaintiff lacked standing because he could not show that changes to the advertising funded by the pork checkoff program following the board’s purchase and retirement of the slogan affected him financially. In fact, since the board began advertising with the slogan “Pork: Be Inspired,” the net return on investment to pork producers rose from $13.8…
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently issued a report finding that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) did not adequately evaluate the impact of proposed poultry and hog inspection changes that would replace some USDA inspectors on slaughter lines with plant personnel tasked with ensuring quality and safety standards. According to the report, USDA implemented several pilot projects at poultry and hog processing plants over the past decade but ultimately failed to gather enough data to assess the effectiveness of these new systems. Nevertheless, the agency has since proposed an optional inspection scheme for both poultry and hog operations “based on its experience with the pilot projects at young chicken and young turkey plants.” Asked to review these pilot projects by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), GAO determined that the proposed changes would give production plants more flexibility and responsibility while allowing inspectors to focus…
Consumer Reports magazine has allegedly identified bacterial contamination as well as antibiotic-resistant bacteria and veterinary drug residues in pork chop and ground-pork samples purchased from U.S. grocery stores. According to an analysis in the January 2013 edition of the magazine, 69 percent of the 198 pork samples in question purportedly contained Yersinia enterocolitica; 11 percent contained Enterococcus; and 3 to 7 percent contained Salmonella, Staphylococcus aureus, or Listeria monocytogenes. In addition, the magazine reported that 13 of 14 Staphylococcus samples isolated from pork were resistant to antimicrobials, as were six of eight Salmonella samples, 12 of 19 Enterococcus samples, and 121 of 132 Yersinia samples. Consumer Reports has also claimed that approximately one-fifth of 240 pork products analyzed in a separate test “harbored low levels of the drug ractopamine,” a growth promoter used in U.S. pork production but banned in the European Union, China and Taiwan. Consumers Union, the policy…
The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) has sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) seeking to end payments made to the National Pork Producers Council (Pork Council) for the purchase of the registered mark “Pork, The Other White Meat.” HSUS v. Vilsack, No. 12-01582 (D.D.C., filed September 24, 2012). According to the complaint, which details the circumstances leading to the mark’s creation, development and use, the Pork Council should not have retained ownership of the mark, and the $60-million, 20-year contract for its purchase should have been terminated when USDA decided to retire the mark and create a new one. HSUS contends that the contract is funded with pork-producer checkoff program dollars, which cannot be used for lobbying. Because the Pork Council is a lobbying organization, HSUS claims that the ongoing payments under the purchase agreement violate federal law. HSUS seeks a declaration that these expenditures of checkoff…
The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) has reportedly filed a legal complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) alleging that the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) “is engaging in deceptive advertising related to animal well-being in violation of the Federal Trade Commission Act,” according to an April 18, 2012, press release. In particular, the complaint apparently maintains that NPPC’s “We Care Initiative” and “Pork Quality Assurance [PQA] Plus” program “are riddled with numerous false claims regarding the welfare of pigs, including the trade group’s patently false claim that its PQA Plus program helps to ‘ensure that all animals in the pork industry continue to receive humane care and handling.’” In support of these assertions, HSUS claims to have documented pork industry practices “that most consumers do not consider humane such as the extreme confinement of breeding sows in two-foot-wide metal cages, and painful procedures such as tail ‘docking,’…
Canadian researchers have reportedly halted the development of genetically engineered (GE) pigs after the hog producers association sponsoring the project decided to stop funding it. Created in 1999 by scientists at the University of Guelph and financed by Ontario Pork, the so-called Enviropig™ apparently contained genes from mice and an E. coli bacterium that enabled the animal to digest plant phosphorus “more efficiently than conventional Yorkshire pigs,” thereby lessening the environmental impact of the manure. Had a company been found to take the product to market, the Enviropig™ would have become the first GE animal to enter the food supply if approved by the U.S. and Canadian governments for human consumption. According to an April 2, 2012, New York Times report, however, the Enviropig™ met much resistance from environmental and consumer groups that oppose transgenic livestock for food purposes and feared the GE pig would make large-scale farming more profitable.…
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has appealed a ruling made by a World Trade Organization (WTO) panel against the United States in a dispute with Mexico and Canada over country-of-origin labeling (COOL) laws for beef and pork products. Responding to complaints filed by Canada and Mexico, WTO’s Dispute Settlement Panel ruled in November 2011 that although the United States has the right to require COOL regulations, specific requirements enacted in 2008 such as those calling for segregation of imported livestock before processing provide less favorable treatment to Canadian and Mexican livestock. The ruling was covered in Issue 419 of this Update. According to the appeal, USTR found several errors in the panel’s ruling and contends, among other issues, that its COOL labeling does not impose unfavorable treatment of imported products because it “requires meat derived from both imported and domestic livestock to be labeled under the exact…
Several consumer organizations have called on President Barack Obama (D) to appeal a World Trade Organization (WTO) ruling that favored Canada and Mexico in a dispute over U.S. country-of-origin-labeling (COOL) requirements for beef and pork products. In their February 24, 2012, letter, Consumers Union, Food & Water Watch, Public Citizen, and the Consumer Federation of America contend that the WTO panel issued a “conflicted ruling” by affirming this country’s right to require COOL for meat products, but finding that specific requirements were less favorable to Canada and Mexico. Details about the WTO ruling appear in Issue 419 of this Update. According to the letter, COOL “is wildly popular in the U.S., as poll after poll show overwhelming support for labeling. Indeed, nations around the world are implementing variants of such laws.”
