Working Conditions and Food Safety
Safer Working Conditions = Safer Meat:
Linking Workers’ Rights in Meatpacking to Consumer Interests in Food Quality
Some studies have linked the high speed of the slaughtering and processing line in the meatpacking industry with concerns over the quality of the meat produced. This article seeks to connect workers’ rights to safe and sanitary working conditions and how hazardous conditions affect the quality of meat produced in the plants and then sold to consumers.
Workers must operate under fast speeds and scramble to coerce animals for slaughter. This may sacrifice food quality to meet the demands of a high rate of production.[1] Under the fast rate of meat production, workers may cause extreme stress to animals. This can cause a drop in an animal’s pH, particularly in pigs. Animals can develop a condition called Pale, Soft, Exudative (PSE), which is characterized by a pale color, lack of firmness, and fluid dripping from its cut surfaces. This is a food quality problem because when cooked, this meat lacks the juiciness of normal meat. PSE meat is unsuitable for processed meats as well, as it results in products which have an undesirable pale color and are swimming in extra fluid. This meat is then waste.
Workers inevitably come into contact with blood, grease, animal feces, ingesta (food from the animal's digestive system), and other detritus from the animals they slaughter. However, a review by Human Rights Watch of a sample of USDA reports on the failure of Nebraska Beef to meet sanitary production standards from 2001 and 2002 showed unsanitary conditions in the plant dangerous to both workers and consumers.[2] Human Rights Watch has also documented numerous cases of workers having to work too fast while cutting meat on the line to properly dispose of undesirable products. One of the dangers of unsanitary working conditions is the spread of E. coli O157:H7, which is common in cow feces and poisonous to humans. Eric Schlosser’s book, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal (2001), and the 2006 film loosely based upon it, sought to link an E. Coli outbreak to the conditions of the slaughter and meatpacking plant, particularly the conditions on the line and in the plant that could have compromised worker safety and food quality.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is in charge of regulating food safety and the accurate labeling of food products through its Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS). As long as USDA inspectors can certify that the product is uncontaminated, line speed can increase with no concern for effects on worker safety. Sometimes USDA itself encourages faster production. In the case of E. coli, however, contamination of meat from the plant is often discovered after it has made people ill. According to the USDA, the FSIS conducts carcass by carcass inspection, sets appropriate food safety standards, verifies through inspection that those standards are met, and maintains a strong enforcement program to deal with plants that do not meet regulatory standards.
According to their website, FSIS employs about 7,800 personnel in more than 6,200 plants. These establishments vary greatly in size and type of activity conducted. Most of these FSIS agents are employed as on-line inspectors that are stationed at fixed points along the slaughter line to conduct carcass-by-carcass post-mortem inspections. Inspectors look for signs of disease or pathological conditions that would render a carcass or part unfit for human consumption. The FSIS explicitly states, however, that the meatpacking industry is ultimately responsible for producing safe food and the government’s task is to set, evaluate, and enforce safety standards.[3]
References:
1. Stephen David Morgan Jones, Quality and Grading of Carcasses of Meat Animals, (CRC Press, 1995), 8-9.
2. Lance A. Compa, Human Rights Watch, Blood, Sweat, and Fear: Workers’ Rights in U.S. Meat and Poultry Plants, (Human Rights Watch, 2004).
3. The USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, “Slaughter Inspection 101” updated March 4, 2008
