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Microcap & Penny Stocks : THE OZONE COMPANY! (OZON) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: James Marks who wrote (2472)	1/26/1998 8:56:00 AM
From: SIer formerly known as Joe B.	Respond to of 4356

Hope your not long S&P futures.

To: James Marks who wrote (2472)	1/26/1998 10:49:00 AM
From: Jeffrey L. Henken	Respond to of 4356

INSPECTORS WARY OF PLAN FOR MONITORING MEAT PROCESSING Associated Press Web-posted Monday, January 26, 1998; 6:04 a.m. CST Dateline: WASHINGTON The government's new system for preventing contamination in processing plants is known by the acronym HACCP. Some meat and poultry inspectors sardonically say that means: "Have A Cup of Coffee and Pray." Actually, it means "Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points," a system beginning Monday for the 312 largest meat and poultry processing plants that account for 75 percent of livestock slaughtered in the U.S. It will be phased in over two years in the remaining 6,100 plants. "We definitely have our work cut out for us, as there are many disturbing pitfalls and apparent weaknesses," Randy Wurtele, western president of the National Joint Council of Food Inspection Locals, said in a letter on the union council's Internet site. Under the new regime, plants install in their facilities preventive measures to reduce E. coli and salmonella bacteria and to improve sanitation. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman said the system is a "revolutionary improvement" over the old approach's reliance on sight, touch and smell. "Rather than catching problems after they occur, we will now focus on preventing problems in the first place," Glickman said. HACCP systems involve identifying points in a processing plant where contamination is most likely to occur and finding methods to combat it. Each plant can design its own HACCP system but must meet certain standards. Some of the 7,500 federal inspectors on the front lines say relying on company workers to keep records on how well the systems operate places too much faith in the honesty of corporations out to make a profit. For example, companies are required to test for E. coli, a strain of which can cause serious illness or even death in humans. But no federal inspector will oversee the tests, and companies need only make available their own results, which Wurtele said could be fabricated. Thomas Billy, head of USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service, said federal inspectors will do random E. coli sampling. The government could order corrective action, Billy said, "if we see an aberration." Inspectors have voiced other worries, including a bacteria-sampling plan exempting certain kinds of animals and the lack of a requirement that the industry document qualifications of workers who make changes in HACCP systems. The rules are "a public relations ploy" aimed mainly at shifting blame for outbreaks of food-borne illness from the government to private industry, Wurtele said. "We cannot sit still when we see obvious shortcomings," he said. Glickman insisted the new rules go further to control food-borne pathogens, and inspectors will have greater ability to close plants that show patterns of non-compliance with HACCP systems. In addition, he said, plant inspectors will continue visual inspections of carcasses and have more freedom than before to check out overall operations.