Food & Water Watch sues USDA over poultry rule
September 12, 2014 | 08:00 AM
Food & Water Watch on Thursday filed suit in federal court against the Agriculture Department to stop the implementation of the New Poultry Inspection System (NPIS) rules.
Wenonah Hauter
“These rules essentially privatize poultry inspection, and pave the way for others in the meat industry to police themselves,” said Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch in a news release.
“The USDA's decision to embrace the scheme — an initiative lobbied for by the meat industry for more than a decade — flies in the face of the agency's mandate to protect consumers. What’s more, we believe it’s illegal.”
Food & Water Watch said its suit “charges the new system violates the Poultry Products Inspection Act (PPIA), a law passed in 1957 that gives USDA the authority to protect consumer health and welfare by assuring that poultry products are wholesome, not adulterated, and properly marked, labeled and packaged.”
The organization alleges that NPIS violates a number of statutory requirements, including the PPIA’s prescription that federal government inspectors, and not poultry slaughter establishment staff, are responsible for condemning adulterated young chicken and turkey carcasses.
The suit states that the NPIS rules also violate the PPIA’s requirement that federal inspectors supervise slaughter establishment reprocessing, which is done to avoid the condemnation of adulterated birds (essentially removing problematic chicken parts to allow the rest of the bird to pass inspection.)
The suit is being brought by Food & Water Watch on behalf of itself and its members, who include the two other individual plaintiffs, Margaret Sowerwine and Jane Foran.
Defendants are Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and other officials from USDA and its Food Safety and Inspection Service.
A Food Safety and Inspection Service spokesperson told The Hagstrom Report “USDA cannot comment on the pending litigation, but we can speak to the public health benefits of modernizing our decades-old poultry inspection system.”
“The United States has been relying on a poultry inspection model that dates back to 1957,” the spokesperson said.
“This modernization effort brings poultry inspection into the 21st century by providing for a science-based approach that imposes new requirements on the industry and focuses our inspectors on those activities that have the greatest impact on food safety. These improvements will prevent thousands of illnesses each year.”
▪ Food & Water Watch, Inc., et al. v. USDA et al. — Complaint for Declatory and Injunctive Relief
“These rules essentially privatize poultry inspection, and pave the way for others in the meat industry to police themselves,” said Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch in a news release.
“The USDA's decision to embrace the scheme — an initiative lobbied for by the meat industry for more than a decade — flies in the face of the agency's mandate to protect consumers. What’s more, we believe it’s illegal.”
Food & Water Watch said its suit “charges the new system violates the Poultry Products Inspection Act (PPIA), a law passed in 1957 that gives USDA the authority to protect consumer health and welfare by assuring that poultry products are wholesome, not adulterated, and properly marked, labeled and packaged.”
The organization alleges that NPIS violates a number of statutory requirements, including the PPIA’s prescription that federal government inspectors, and not poultry slaughter establishment staff, are responsible for condemning adulterated young chicken and turkey carcasses.
The suit states that the NPIS rules also violate the PPIA’s requirement that federal inspectors supervise slaughter establishment reprocessing, which is done to avoid the condemnation of adulterated birds (essentially removing problematic chicken parts to allow the rest of the bird to pass inspection.)
The suit is being brought by Food & Water Watch on behalf of itself and its members, who include the two other individual plaintiffs, Margaret Sowerwine and Jane Foran.
Defendants are Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and other officials from USDA and its Food Safety and Inspection Service.
A Food Safety and Inspection Service spokesperson told The Hagstrom Report “USDA cannot comment on the pending litigation, but we can speak to the public health benefits of modernizing our decades-old poultry inspection system.”
“The United States has been relying on a poultry inspection model that dates back to 1957,” the spokesperson said.
“This modernization effort brings poultry inspection into the 21st century by providing for a science-based approach that imposes new requirements on the industry and focuses our inspectors on those activities that have the greatest impact on food safety. These improvements will prevent thousands of illnesses each year.”
▪ Food & Water Watch, Inc., et al. v. USDA et al. — Complaint for Declatory and Injunctive Relief
