Food Safety

Building a Scientific, Risk-Based Meat and Poultry Inspection System Gao ID: T-RCED-93-22 March 16, 1993

The existing meat and poultry inspection system relies on labor-intensive methods--primarily sight, smell, and touch--that cannot detect pathogenic bacteria, a major public health risk. This shortcoming was illustrated by the recent deaths and illnesses in Washington state linked to undercooked hamburgers contaminated with bacteria. To better protect the public from foodborne illnesses, the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) must move to a modern, scientific, risk-based inspection system. GAO recommends that the FSIS (1) develop a detailed strategic and operational plan showing how it plans to achieve a more effective inspection system, (2) work with all interested parties to build a consensus on the design of a new inspection system, and (3) seek needed legislative changes and obtain congressional guidance on the objectives of the meat and poultry industry.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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