BIG BOYS CANNOT ESCAPE EAGLE EYES:USDA
Found this article in yesterdays post:
Cumming plant gets brunt of 'critical' mistakes
By Christy Oglesby, The Atlanta
Journal-Constitution
Just days before last July Fourth -- one of the biggest barbecuing days of the year -- inspectors found severe problems with chicken heading to consumers from the Tyson slaughtering and processing plant in Cumming.
Some birds had black machine grease on them, according to reports filed by inspectors with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Others had infections under their skin or had been stored in temperatures favorable for bacterial growth, the reports state.
And in what one Tyson employee contended was "an act of God," chickens spewed from a machine onto a broken conveyor belt too quickly for workers to handle, and birds "were falling onto the floor and piling up," the report states.
The ones that fell into the plant's drain water were destroyed. The others were cleaned up and sold.
Inspectors classified those 1997 deficiencies as "critical," meaning the meat was contaminated, heading to the market, and if eaten, would be certain to harm the consumer. The year before, Tyson Foods Inc. accumulated 311 "critical" citations at its Cumming plant, which processes about 1.3 million birds a week.
It was by far the largest number of citations by a single plant in Georgia in 1996. At least 104 of the critical deficiencies were because Tyson employees failed to clean equipment that came into contact with the chickens. Another 39 resulted from improper handling of chickens, such as allowing contaminants from raw
meat to make contact with cooked products or employees handling dirty
containers and then handling meat without washing their hands.
The USDA took no punitive action.
"There are no magic numbers on repetitive deficiencies" before the USDA intensifies inspection methods or moves to shut a plant down, said Benny Holland, a USDA processing inspector based at Tyson's Cumming plant.
A compliance team -- inspectors who review paperwork to build a case to shut a plant down -- visited the facility twice last year, but took no action, said Lewis Burgman, USDA district manager for the Atlanta district. As long as companies say they will take different preventive measures and the same measures aren't failing each time, the plant is allowed to continue operating.
Inspection reports from 1997 were not readily available from the USDA. The findings before last July Fourth came from reports obtained from a consumer watchdog group through the federal Freedom of Information Act.
An analysis by Cox Newspapers of meat and chicken processing plant inspections conducted in 1996 found that Tyson operated four of the five chicken processing plants in Georgia with the highest number of critical citations. At Tyson plants in Vienna, Buena Vista and Dawson, there were 281, 189 and 168 critical deficiencies, respectively. The Cagle's facility in Macon
ranked the third-worst in the state, with 195 critical citations.
The type of mishandling of chicken that would result in a critical citation -- particularly the contamination of cooked meat by the blood of raw meat and the leaving of chicken scraps overnight on machines that will process meat -- can breed salmonella, a food-borne disease that can cause intense intestinal discomfort, and worse.
"It can kill you," said Dr. Paul Blake, chief of the epidemiology section at the Division of Public Health. "There are a number of instances of perfectly healthy children and young adults who die from salmonella."
While Tyson's Cumming plant amassed more critical citations than any other Georgia facility in 1996, it is important to consider the size of the plant and the number of carcasses it handles, Burgman said.
The Cumming plant is one the largest in Georgia, said Archibald L. Schaffer III, a Tyson vice president and director of media, public and governmental affairs.
While the plant had more than 300 critical deficiencies that year -- including 30 of the same type found in a 72-day period -- it also handled more than 50 million chickens.
Burgman said it's "almost impossible" to use the number of deficiencies as a determinant of a plant's performance. "We have to consider and make an assessment of what the plant management is doing to correct the problems."
At Gold Kist's plant in Ellijay, which processes about 200,000 more birds a week than Tyson's Cumming plant, inspectors noted 116 critical deficiencies in 1996.
Schaffer released a two-paragraph written response to questions about the Tyson plant in Cumming. The response addressed only the 1997 critical -- and repetitive -- deficiencies between January and April, saying they were caused by a "misinterpretation of the standards. . . ."
It concluded by saying, "Tyson Foods is convinced that the Cumming plant does an outstanding job meeting or exceeding the USDA standards, and the even more stringent standards and expectations of Tyson and its customers."
Plant employees can correct a problem when inspectors find a deficiency,Burgman said. Soiled chickens, such as the ones found with machine grease, can be recleaned; and birds with a bad or infectious limb can be cut up,allowing only the healthy parts to be sold.
Companies can appeal the category a deficiency is given and request that the severity of the citation be reduced. The most severe deficiency is designated "critical," and in descending order, the remaining categories are "major" and "minor."
Tyson's Cumming plant manager appealed the critical status of the 1997 deficiencies mentioned here, but the USDA denied them all. Regardless of the classification of the deficiency, the corrective steps are the same: Correct the error, decide what to do with the possibly contaminated chicken, then implement a plan to prevent the problem from occurring again.
A Cumming manager's written response to the USDA about an infected chicken making it to the processing line noted that the company has a USDA-approved plan that permits bad parts to be cut off and the rest sold.
USDA regulations require inspectors to examine each bird that comes through the factory, but that's difficult, Holland said. Tyson is one of two plants in Georgia that has implemented a pilot program with new machines that move birds past inspectors faster than they do at other facilities.
"It's 140 birds a minute and the viscera [innards] hanging above the bird," said Holland, the USDA inspector at Tyson's Cumming plant. "You're supposed to look at the bird and the viscera, but it's hard."
Other Georgia plants use systems that swing carcasses by at a rate of 70 or 91 birds per minute, Burgman said.
BTW: Excellent posts Sandie.
Regards
Sri |
