WASHINGTON - A U.S. Agriculture Department advisory panel on meat and poultry will meet Sept 9 and 10 to discuss federal inspection of plants after new food safety rules are introduced in 1998.
The meeting comes just two weeks after the USDA pressed Hudson Foods Inc to order the biggest meat recall in history to contain an outbreak of E.coli bacteria. The agency is also seeking expanded authority from Congress to fine companies that violate food safety rules.
The National Advisory Committee on Meat and Poultry Inspection will consider policy issues at the meeting, including the interstate shipments of state-inspected food and the government's new Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) program.
USDA said it wants to discuss changes in assignment of meat inspectors after HACCP-based inspection procedures begin at large meat processing plants on Jan. 26.
USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service said the meeting would be open to the public. Comments can be submitted to the FSIS in advance of the meeting by facsimile at 202-205-0381.
Members of the National Advisory Committee on Meat and Poultry Inspection are:
Deloran Allen, Excel Corp
William Brown, ABC Research Corp
Terry Burkhardt, Wisconsin Bureau of Meat Safety and Inspection
Caroline Smith-DeWaal, Center for Science in the Public Interest
Nancy Donley, Safe Tables Our Priority
Carol Tucker Foreman, Safe Food Coalition
Michael Gregory, Hudson Foods Inc
Cheryl Hall, Foster Farms, Inc
Margaret Hardin, National Pork Producers
Alan Janzen, Circle Five Feedyards, Inc
Daniel LaFontaine, S.Carolina Meat-Poultry Inspection Dept
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