DeLauro Urges Administration to Assure Food Safety, Protect Consumers

Discusses Impending Rule, Imported Foods duringAppropriations Hearing

WASHINGTON, DC--Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro (D-CT), memberof the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee, pressed theAdministration today on a range of issues critical to the safety of meat andpoultry products sold to American consumers.

DeLauro focused on a proposal to appropriately identifymechanically tenderized beef products and another to fundamentally alter theinspection of poultry slaughter facilities. She also asked about thesafety of imported food and impact of the deeply harmful, across-the-boardbudget cuts known as sequestration on in-person audits of international foodsafety systems. In addition, DeLauro pressed her colleagues to addresssequestration and the resulting cuts to programs that affect the health andwellbeing of Americans, including the food safety work at the Department ofAgriculture (USDA).

"I am still concerned that trade trumps public health andfood safety, and will continue to protect the integrity of our food safetysupply, including by fighting to keep food safety out of the Beyond the Borderinitiative. The hearing failed to assure me that the proposed changes topoultry slaughter will not harm worker safety and I will follow up with theDepartment on this issue. And I am disappointed that FSIS was unable tocommit to a firm time frame to label mechanically tenderized beef products soconsumers know the appropriate cooking temperatures."

Beyond the Border includes a food safety pilot program thatmay affect the safety of meat and poultry products sold in America. DeLauro has urgedthe Administration to keep food safety measures out of Beyond the Border toensure they are not weakened.

Mechanically tenderized beef products may appear to beintact cuts of beef and without accurate labeling create a public health riskfor consumers. The USDA recommends that non-intact beef products, includingmechanically tenderized beef products, be cooked to an internal temperature of160 degrees Fahrenheit. This is because pathogens, like E. coli O157:H7, may beintroduced into the product during the tenderization process. DeLauro has beenworking to require labeling of these products, including thisletter to USDA.