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of hygiene failings in recent
years in some major US meat plants
producing poultry, beef and pork products.
These include breaches relating to the contamination
of carcasses, inadequate cleaning,
unsanitary conditions and other failings of key
hygiene standards. US campaigners are calling
for a change in the law, which currently allows
meat with salmonella to be sold. One in seven of
the US population contracts a food-borne illness
every year at present, compared to just over one
in seventy in the UK.
Unpublished US government
records highlight numerous
specific incidents. These include:
• Dirty chicken, soiled with faeces or having been
dropped on the floor, being put back onto the
production line after being rinsed with chlorine
• Diseased poultry meat that had been condemned
- found in containers used to hold edible food
products
• Pig carcasses piling up on the factory floor after
an equipment breakdown
• Meat destined for the human food chain found
riddled with fecal matter and infection
• High power hoses being used to clean dirty floors
next to working production lines containing food
products
• Factory floors flooded with dirty water after drains
became blocked by meat parts and other debris.
Food safety campaigners say some of the hygiene
breaches could risk the spread of bacteria that can
cause food poisoning illnesses, such as salmonella.
This affects about a million people each year in
the US, with around a third of cases linked to meat
and poultry. Internal records, known as non-compliance
reports, were compiled by the Food Safety
Inspection Service (FSIS), which regulates US meat
production. Data obtained by The Guardian and
the Bureau details more than 15,000 violations at
13 large red meat and poultry plants between 2015
and 2017. This represents 150 violations a week.
Separate documents reveal frequent failings at
24 plants operated by one of America’s largest
poultry processors. The firm recently bought a
British chicken giant, which is, in turn, owned by
JBS, the world’s largest meat processing company.
More than 36,000 individual regulatory violations,
numbering on average nearly 50 a day, were
documented at the plants between 2014 and 2016.
Thousands of similar violations were recorded at
ten pork-producing plants over a five-year period
up until 2016.
The findings highlight for the first time the widespread
bad practices in parts of the US meat industry.
This, following on from the uproar sparked by
the ‘chlorinated chicken’ row last year, highlights
the potential risks to UK consumers if a widely
expected US trade deal goes ahead without safeguards
to guarantee standards. The data we have
obtained so far relates to just 47 of the largest US
meat plants, which number around 6000, which
are regularly inspected by FSIS. However, the data
provides a chilling snapshot of hygiene issues
that are rarely aired in public and which experts
warn could represent just the tip of the iceberg.
“These figures are sobering reminders of the risks
to UK public health if the UK crashes out of the
EU’s food safety regime into the arms of Uncle
Sam,” London’s City University professor of food
policy Tim Lang says. “British consumers must
not be tantalised by offers of notionally cheaper
US or international meat. Cheap meat isn’t cheap.
The lamentable figures in this study remind us
that big plants generate big problems when they
go wrong.”
The meat giant JBS said in a statement that all
of the incidents highlighted at their plants were
addressed immediately and that no consumers
were put at risk.
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism is an
independent, not-for-profit London-based media
organisation that educates the public and holds power
to account. This story includes research by
The Guardian, and is slightly edited for size.
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