The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has rejected a request by the National Chicken Council (NCC) that would have allowed faster speeds on lines at poultry processing plants.
The USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) in 2014 published new regulations through the New Poultry Inspection System (NPIS), which reduced the amount of birds that could be processed per minute to 140. The NCC petitioned to implement a waiver system to allow processing plants participating in the NPIS to operate without the line speed caps imposed by the NPIS. NCC said increasing line speeds would give the U.S. a competitive edge over countries that don’t have an “arbitrary” speed cap.
In a letter on Monday from USDA Acting Deputy Undersecretary Carmen Rottenberg to NCC President Michael Brown, the agency said it has decided to deny the petition. The letter said the NCC “did not include data to demonstrate that inspectors can conduct an effective carcass-by-carcass inspection at line speeds faster than those authorized.”
“Because FSIS has already implemented procedures for establishments to request regulatory waivers, we have determined that it is not necessary to establish a separate system to provide line speed waivers to young chicken establishments operating under the NPIS,” the USDA letter said. “We have received over 100,000 comments on the petition and intend to respond to the issues raised by the comments in a separate document that also will be made available to the public. We will be publishing this letter as well.”
Of the more than 100,000 comments the USDA received about the petition, most were negative.
NCC still hopeful
NCC’s proposal sought for eligible establishments to be allowed to operate at any line speed at which they can maintain process control, with those establishments developing a process for monitoring and maintaining process control at the chosen speed and issuing corrective actions for any problems.
Brown said he is hopeful that some of the plants operating under the NPIS will soon be able to petition for increased line speeds “if they maintain a record of process control.” Then the cap would be 175 birds per minute.
The USDA said it would make available criteria for broiler plants that have been operating under the NPIS for more than a year and that it “expects to grant a limited number of additional waivers” to operate at speeds up to 175 birds per minute
“While we are disappointed about the denial of the petition, NCC is encouraged that there will be a viable path forward in the near future for those plants operating under NPIS to petition the agency for increased line speeds, if they maintain a record of process control,” Brown said in a statement. “That was the original intent of the petition and we look forward to working with the agency and our members on the soon to be released criteria to apply for such a request.”
Rep. Doug Collins, R-Georgia, had written to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, encouraging him to consider implementing policies that would increase line speeds at U.S. poultry plants, while a group of House Democrats said any attempt to increase line speeds to would have detrimental effects on food, worker and animal safety.
