THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 7, 1996 TAG: 9607070073
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: FROM WIRE REPORTS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: 80 lines
President Clinton announced Saturday the most sweeping changes in the government's meat inspection system since it was created nearly a century ago, outlining new rules that would, for the first time, impose scientific tests for disease-causing bacteria.
The new rules call for more inspection and controls by the meat- and poultry-processing industry and new testing by the Department of Agriculture. Drafted over the past two years, the rules will take effect in stages, some immediately and some over the next two to three years, officials said.
``These new meat and poultry contamination safeguards will be the strongest ever,'' Clinton said in his weekly radio address. ``Parents should know that when they serve a chicken dinner, they are not putting their children at risk.''
Since the federal Meat Inspection Act was passed in 1907 - after the publication of Upton Sinclair's muckraking expose of the industry, ``The Jungle'' - inspectors have relied on the ``sniff and poke method'' to certify that carcasses are safe to eat. But inspectors cannot always detect contaminated meat just by quickly smelling or looking for the obvious signs of decay.
The government had wanted processors to perform microbial tests for the presence of the deadly salmonella bacteria, which kills more than 4,000 people a year and sickens as many as 5 million, and for E. coli bacteria, which indicates fecal contamination and can be deadly in some forms. But in a compromise, processors will test for E. coli and federal inspectors will conduct tests for salmonella at various stages in the process.
Consumer groups have been pressing for change since a virulent strain of E. coli, traced to undercooked hamburgers at Jack in the Box restaurants, killed several children in the Pacific Northwest in 1993 and sickened hundreds of other people. Saturday, such groups joined industry representatives in praising the new rules.
Inaugurating these new rules in an election year, the president gave credit to consumer groups, especially the parents of the young victims of the Pacific Northwest outbreak, who pressed for these changes.
``The parents of many of the E. coli victims turned their grief into a determination to help others,'' Clinton said. ``In the face of this unspeakable tragedy, they had one insistent question: How could this have happened?''
Some of those parents, now members of the food safety group Safe Tables Our Priority, attended Saturday's announcement.
``Until the end of my life, I will not give up this fight because today is just the beginning of getting this right,'' said Ronnie Rudolph of Carlsbad, Calif., whose 6-year-old daughter, Lauren, died during an E. coli outbreak three years ago.
``If this new system can save one life it will be worth it,'' said Laurie Galler, whose daughter died after eating an undercooked hamburger in 1992. ``Today, the president declared war against unsafe meat. I'm very excited about that.''
Under the new rules, packers and slaughterhouses will be required to establish a system known as hazard analysis and critical control points. They must identify each point and potential problem in the process - such as cutting, grinding and overheating - where contamination can occur and then develop steps to prevent it. The bacterial tests are intended to assure that the new safety steps work, officials said.
Companies will have as long as 42 months to set up hazard control systems, with smaller companies having the longest time to comply. Eventually, plants will be required to reduce their salmonella contamination to below the prevailing national average for the type of meat they process. For example, 20 percent of broiler chickens are contaminated with salmonella.
Within six months, companies also will have to set up new sanitation systems to ensure cleanliness.
The Republicans responded to Clinton's announcement by raising questions about his behavior toward the poultry and pork industries when he was governor of Arkansas, saying his actions then ``left more than half the streams in his home state too polluted for drinking, swimming or fishing.''
Some congressional Republicans tried to block the new rules and threatened to withhold appropriations for new inspectors and training, arguing that they might be too onerous for the industry. But administration officials said the new rules were intended to grant the industry new flexibility in exchange for its assuring the safety of its own processes.
KEYWORDS: MEAT REGULATIONS by CNB