Consumer Group Continues Push Against 'Beyond the Border,' but USDA says No Reductions in Inspection

The mild reaction of the Obama administration to a wide recall of Canadian beef is related to the planned deregulation of meat inspection at the Canadian border as part of the "Beyond the Border" Initiative, said Food and Water Watch. "With this historic recall and inadequate response from FSIS as a backdrop, it’s unconscionable that the Obama Administration is still moving ahead with plans to implement a pilot program that would eliminate some border inspection activities for meat products imported from Canada," said Wenonah Hauter, executive director of the consumer group. But USDA and the American Meat Institute disagreed with Food and Water Watch's characterization of the initiative. USDA said it is not reducing inspection, and AMI said the new procedures will actually enhance food safety.

“While the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has actually issued recall announcements, FSIS is still releasing vague ‘Public Health Alerts’ and only informing the public of changes when pressured by consumer advocates," said Food and Water Watch's Hauter. The group now believes "USDA’s unusual handling of the Canadian beef recall situation is related to the Obama Administration’s plans to deregulate meat inspection along the Canadian border," said Hauter. “We continue to urge the Obama Administration to abandon the plans to deregulate border inspection. Additionally, we urge the Obama Administration to review the equivalency determination with Canada because it is apparent Canada cannot be trusted to certify the safety of beef products it sends across the border.”

But USDA denied that the initiative will reduce inspections. "We are not reducing inspection," said a USDA spokesman. "This pilot will include all protections that the current system provides, including testing for pathogens, and all products now subject to testing will continued to be tested under the pilot project."

That the Beyond the Border Initiative would reduce border inspection is an "unfair characterization, said Mark Dopp, senior vice president-regulatory affairs at the American Meat Institute. According to Dopp, the initiative would simply move inspection from the border to the destination USDA-regulated facilities in the U.S. "It's still being done by a USDA inspector. It's not going to be done with any less frequency, it's just being done at a different location," he said. Dopp said AMI believes that the new procedures may actually enhance food safety because, rather than opening and breaking the seal on meat containers on a truck at the border, the inspection will be done at the USDA-inspected processing facility in the U.S.

Food and Water Watch said they obtained a draft of the pilot program that identifies a Canadian meat packer that will be permitted to ship product into the U.S. with virtually no inspection at the border. The draft is (here).

(See ITT's Online Archives 12092035 for summary of consumer group complaints regarding changes to meat import regulations)