The head of the National Association of Federal Veterinarians (NAFV), who also serves as an inspector for USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, urged USDA this week to modernize its poultry inspection process to better reflect a science- and risk-based model.
In an October 29 editorial in Food Safety News penned jointly with B.M. Hargis, director of JKS Poultry Health Laboratory at the University of Arkansas, and Douglas Fulnechek, president of NAFV, argued that “Modernizing the system will increase the number of USDA inspectors performing off-line food-safety tasks. Off-line inspectors verify contamination control, examine herd or flock records, evaluate food hazard prevention plans, ensure sanitation is maintained, and test for pathogens such as Salmonella and Campylobacter. Focusing federal inspection on microbiological safety and leaving the visible but non-safety-related sorting to the industry leverages the federal presence while making food safer and reducing taxpayer cost.”
The editorial is available here.
