Safety and Quality of Meat - Assignment Example

Safety and Quality of Meat Safety and Quality of Meat Now as the world is moving towards specialization and to make more effective and efficient use of the limited and scarce resources of this world. The use of specialization has cause international trade to reach its peaks because every country cannot produce everything and hence trade is need and done. In this international trade market one of the leading traded products are livestock and food products made from livestock’s. A big part of this traded product is imported and exported by the United States of America. But they also have food safety and inspection requirements which need to be completed by the exporting country. Looking at the outbreak of Food and Mouth Disease (FMD) in 2001 and the destruction this very infectious animal disease caused to the livestock industry and economy of the United Kingdom has caused the level of inspection to be increased in the import of the poultry sector of the country. The disease was completely removed from its entire root in 8 months but by this time the United Kingdom had slaughtered more than 4 million animals to stop the disease from spreading and had faced loses worth more than 5 billion dollars in its food and agriculture industry. Due to this disease United Kingdom also had to face a loss in its tourism industry as the people were scared about the food they would be eating in the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom had been FMD free since the last 34 years before the FMD breakout in 2001. The United Kingdom until recent was not allowed to take part in international trade of livestock, poultry and the products produced from these livestock’s and poultry as they could transfer the FMD virus in the other countries (United States General Accounting Office, 2002). On the other hand the United States since the last outbreak in 1929 has been a FMD free country and has not faced an outbreak of this disease till today. The poultry, livestock and agriculture industry of the United States was worth 100 billion dollars in 2001. The importance of the livestock is immense for the agricultural sector and industry of the United States and hence it is an important duty of the United States Department of Agriculture to keep the livestock safe from FMD and other animal diseases not existing in the United States. The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) have to assure the precise labeling, the safety and healthiness of the poultry, meat and processed egg products. FSIS imposes the Federal Meat Inspection Act (FMIA), the Egg Products Inspection Act and the Poultry Products Inspection Act. These laws need Federal inspection and supervision of poultry, meat, and processed egg products produced for the supply in trade for consumption as human food. FSIS also authenticates the acceptance with of the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act for livestock. This law is imposed through the Federal Meat Inspection Act. FSIS hires around 7,800 staff for plant inspection program. They examine more than 6,200 federally inspected undertakings. The undertakings differ significantly according to their size and the sort of proceeding being conducted. United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspects on the basis that whether the organization is responsible for producing healthy and safe food. The government is accountable for conducting inspections on animal carcass, in order to declare it suitable for eating based on food security qualities, establishing these safety levels through observation, and conserve powerful programs when plants do not meet these particular levels. Slaughter facilities are not allowed and cannot perform slaughter operations if FSIS investigation officers are not present. Only federally observed foundations can produce commodities that are meant to enter trade amongst the states or to be exported to the other foreign countries. To trade with foreign countries and facilities must receive Federal inspection and must acquire an official Grant of Inspection. To receive this, a facility must agree to obey by all FSIS regulations, conduct a hazard analysis, must have Sanitation Standard Operating Procedures and develop and validate a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) Plan. At all federally inspected slaughter establishments FSIS manages carcass by carcass inspection. And also checks that the facility follows all the humane handling regulations and food safety laws. Personnel at FSIS program validate that organizations maintain accurate sanitation methods and also that it follows HACCP plan and follows with all FSIS laws regarding to slaughter and operations processing. If the organization fails to conserve the sanitation and obey the HACCP plan or breaks other laws, then FSIS investigation program officers will issue a citation to the organizations documented as a ‘noncompliance record’. If compulsory, officers can also take regulatory control steps (United States Department of Agriculture, 2008). Livestock slaughter and processing organizations should always maintain the written operations for disposing, separating and discharging of the Specified Risk Materials (SRMs) to stop their entry into the food supply. SRMs are high hazard tissues that can transport the matter which can cause a disease called as Mad Cow Disease the scientific name of which is BSE (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy). USDA does not only monitor the animals inside the country but also those that are being imported into the country. The organizations are needed to inform the FSIS for the observation of the animals before the slaughter. The observation at a slaughter organization starts in the location where the live animals arrive prior to slaughter so that the FSIS inspection program officers can review them. All of the procedures used by USDA on the internal slaughter houses are also implemented on the imports of the livestock that gets imported into the US. Once an event occurred in which a freighter carrying meat from the United States to Japan was found to be having meat contaminated with the danger of having Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) or normally called Mad Cow Disease. Even though the agriculture professionals of the United States had vowed that the components at the risk of the disease will not be exported. The Japanese officials wanted an explanation from the United States official on how the diseased meet got into the shipment as three of the boxes in the shipment were found containing meat that were in at the risk of the disease by Japanese personnel’s. Mike Johanns the agriculture secretary of the United States said that a careful enquiry will be made in order to find how the diseased meat got into the cargo (Schroeder, 2006). The agriculture secretary also agreed that the United States had been unsuccessful in completing the conditions of the contract which stated that no parts of the diseased will be exported. The issue had put a great pressure on the United States agriculture and livestock industry as the beef that was sent to Japan was the meat of the animals which were younger than 30 months and the disease symptoms only occur in the animals which are older or equal to 30 months. Another issue arrived that as the meat was of those livestock which were 30 months or younger but Japan only imported meat of the cattle which were 20 months old or younger than that. These issues had created great distress in the international market. The issue was discussed and was resolved and took a lot of diplomacy to be involved for the USDA to make Japan agree to begin trade again. But the incident came to a tragic end and a ban of 2 years was made by the Japanese government on the import of all meat and livestock related products from the United States in 2003 after the conformation of the contamination of the meat. References Schroeder, R. (2006). Japan halts U.S. beef imports; USDA probing shipment. Market Watch. Retrieved 18 July 2014, from http://www.marketwatch.com/story/japan-halts-us-beef-imports-usda-probing-shipment USDA Newsroom. (2008). Inspection for Food Safety: The Basics. Retrieved 18 July 2014, from http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?contentidonly=true&contentid=2008/02/0055.xml  United States General Accounting Office. (2002). Foot and Mouth Disease (1st ed.). DIANE Publishing. Read More