FSIS State Position to Post

April 11, 2001

In a mid-March letter to Joby Warrick, author of a two-part Washington Post series on the failures of the nation's beef inspection system, and NBC's Dateline, USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service provided materials and background information designed to present the agency's activities in the best possible context.

"As a result of the implementation of a new food safety and inspection verification approach that requires meat and poultry plants to take measures to control microbial pathogens and other hazards (hazard analysis and critical control point, or HACCP, systems), the nation's food supply is safer than ever," the letter said.

Warrick's first article, appearing in the Post on Monday, was headlined, "An Outbreak Waiting to Happen" with a sub-head, "Beef-Inspection Failures Let In a Deadly Microbe." It dealt in detail with the death of three-year-old Brianna Kriefall, one of more than 500 person who became ill during an E. coli outbreak last year in the Milwaukee area. She died after eating from a buffet at a restaurant that used tainted sirloin tips.

The second article, which appeared Tuesday and also began on page 1 of the Post's "A" section, dealt with slaughter plants and was headlined, ‘They Die Piece by Piece' and a sub-head, "In Overtaxed Plants, Humane Treatment of Cattle Is Often a Battle Lost." One emphasis of the article was that cattle often go through part of the slaughter process still alive.

FSIS Administrator Thomas Billy, in a March 19 letter to Warrick and Dateline, which also aired a documentary on the subject, said, "Under HACCP, raw meat and poultry products are being microbiologically tested. Our data shows the level of harmful bacteria has been markedly reduced on raw meat and poultry nationwide, and the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) has indicated a dramatic drop in the number of illnesses associated with these products. The system has drawn the support of consumer groups, the meat and poultry industry, academia, and newspaper articles."

Billy went on to say that FSIS and industry efforts had reduced pathogen levels on meat and poultry but cautioned that "raw meat is not sterile. Therefore, all raw products are required to carry a safe handling label." The label states that "some food products may contain bacteria that could cause illness if the product is mishandled or cooked improperly."

Raw meat products shipped to the Sizzler restaurants associated with the outbreak in Wisconsin last July and August carried the required label, Billy said. "Wisconsin health officials concluded that poor employee hygiene and unsafe handling practices caused contamination of the salad bar, which then sickened patrons of the restaurants," Billy wrote. "Clearly, every step in the farm to table continuum is important in preventing food-borne illness. That is why FSIS is participating with other government agencies, consumer organizations and others, in efforts to educate not only consumers but also food service workers."