USDA and FDA regulations of the Meat Industry

USDA and FDA regulations in the Meat Industry

What do you think???

To check out more go to

By Jana Armstrong

www.usda.gov/

So how did a book spark this movement???

Timeline of important events in the Meat Industry

Upton Sinclair was a muckraking journalist trying to make a story that would change the ways of the meat industry. He wrote about the hard conditions and back breaking work people were doing in the factories. But also unleashed the revulsion of change in the meat industry. Some of the points he had brought up were: people dieing in the butter vats and still selling it, chopping of limbs and grinding it in with the meat, and many other horrible things.

What do these acts do???

1970

1926

1966

1995

1904

Upton Sinclair writes

"The Jungle"

1950

Guidelines for

uniform

Beef important

programs

Federal Meat Grading

services set up by USDA

USDA process verifies

tag program

Animal Welfare Act

Beef carcass grades

are amended

Federal Meat Inspection Act-

-examination of animals before slaughtering; diseased animals slaughtered separately and carcasses examined.

-Humane methods of slaughter

-post mortem examination of carcasses and marking or labeling; destruction or carcasses condemned; re inspection.

-examination of carcasses brought into slaughtering or packing establishments, and of meat food products issued from and returned therto; conditions for entry.

-Inspectors of meat food products; marks of inspection; destruction of condemned products; products for export.

-labeling, marking, and container requirements

-sanitary inspection and regulation of slaughtering

-examination of animals and food products, slaughtered and prepared during nighttime

1900

2000

1997

1994

1958

1942

1967

1904

Here is an example from Oscar Myer. This commercial aired in 1978.

US banned the feeding

of ruminant protein to

ruminates

Large Feed lots begin to

form

Humane Methods of

Slaughter Act

Twenty-eight hour

law

Meat Inspection Act

Wholesome Meat

Act

Poultry Inspection Act-

-inspection in official establishments

(a) Ante mortem inspection

(b) Post mortem inspection; quarantine, segregation, and re inspection

(c) Condemnation; appeal; reprossing

-labeling and container standards

Humane methods of Slaughter Act of 1958-

-this act requires the proper treatment and humane handling of all food animals slaughtered in USDA inspected slaughter plants. It doesn't apply to chickens or birds.

Small Time Farmers Struggle with FDA and USDA regulations

Animal Welfare Act-

-the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) requires that minimum standards of care and treatment be provided for certain animals bred for commercial sale, used in research, transported commercially, or exhibited to the public

Wholesome Meat Act of 1967-

-to enforce the inspection of the meat.

Twenty-eight hour law of 1873 (amended 1994) -

-Law originally passed in 1873 that covers transportation, unloading, feeding, watering, and rest of animals

Across the US small meat processing plant owners are hoping for the USDA to NOT implement any new sets of regulations that will force smaller local processors to go out of business.

-91% of US Farmers are classified as small-time with a gross cash farm income (GCFI) of less than $250,000.

-60% of these small farms are very small, generating GCFI of less than $10,000

-22% of farms have less than $1,000 GCFI

SO WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR SMALL TIME FARMERS???

With so many regulations that are good for large time production, the small time production operations are going out of business

What is the USDA and FDA?

Not only is the meat grown in the Untied States tastier, but it can be healthier. With the big push of going organic we have learned more about raising our meat without extra hormones and drugs put into them to help make them grow faster. If we keep on this track of growing the meat healthier then it could help eliminate some of the diseases they have caused.

Without the Meat Industry that we have in the United States life would be much different. We would have to be importing or lowering the amount of meat eaten per person, would not worry about feedlots, and not worry about the care of the animals in the feedlots. If we want to keep eating the way we are we need to stop and take care of our Meat Industry, just like it has for us.

The USDA oversees: Agriculture, food and nutrition, education and outreach, laws and regulations, marketing and trade, environmental issues concerning food, and development. And ALL FOOD!!!

SO WHAT IS THE GOVERNMENT DOING TO FIX THIS???

The FDA oversees: Safety and labeling for food, drugs and makeup, drug approvals, biologics ( blood supply, etc.), veterinary products, radiation-emitting devices (x-rays), and medical devices and products.

As some people may know the USDA stands for United States Department of Agriculture and FDA stands for Food and Drug Administration. These two organizations have teamed up to get better and healthier food for the people of the United States.

"The USDA has introduced several initiatives to help small producers with the HACCP process. The first initiative provides fact sheets, DVDs, and 2-hour educational sessions to guide small producers in designing food safety systems. A second provides resources for learning about basic sanitation, monitoring, and reporting practices as well as employee training. A third offers assistance in validating HACCP plans and practices, for example by helping farmers identify key hazards in their production operation and resources needed for monitoring the critical control points."

What this is saying is we don't have a permanent solution right now, but we are in the process of making separate regulations for the small time farmer so they can keep their operation.

The United States are forced to import a good amount of the meat that you can find in the store. Many other countries have been able to feed their own nations and even help out others. So why can’t we? Americans have learned about fast food, take-out, and even delivering. The problem with this, most people don’t know where there food comes from or they don’t care where it comes from. If they only would know about the nutritional value the fresh meat and the meat grown without the extra added in hormones could do.

So why is the meat industry important Today?

In America today, the average person eats about 195 pounds of meat (red meat, poultry, and fish) a year. Where do you think all that meat comes from? The beef cattle industry is just one small section of the whole food industry that we have. With the raising of large quantities of animals in different forms of feed lots and/or caging we are only meeting part of the United States need of meat. The average slaughterhouse kills an average of 400 head of cattle per day. As that may seem like a lot of cattle being killed it is not enough to sustain the United States need of beef.