A series of alleged hygiene and safety breaches at US meat factories have been detailed by British newspaper The Guardianwhich claims “shocking failings” across several pork and poultry plants factories. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) and The Guardian carried out a joint investigation to discover a number of hygiene incidents after analyzing unpublished US- government records. According to the companies involved, all of the reported breaches resulted in immediate remedial action and posed no risk to consumers.

The Guardian article highlights the following:

• Condemned diseased poultry meat was found in containers used to hold edible products;
• Pig carcasses piling up on the factory floor following an equipment breakdown, which led to contamination with grease, blood and other filth;
• Meat that was destined for the human food chain was found with fecal matter and abscesses filled with pus;
• High-power hoses being used to clean dirty floors next to working production lines containing food products;
• Factory floors flooded with dirty water after drains became blocked by meat parts and other debris;
• Dirty chicken, soiled with feces or having been dropped on the floor, being put back on to the production line after being rinsed with dilute chlorine.

This information comes after the Bureau and The Guardian obtained the previously unpublished documents which relate to 47 US meat plants. The Guardian says that some of the documents are about specific companies including one of the country’s largest poultry providers, Pilgrim’s Pride, and Swift Pork, owned by meat giant JBS.

The newspaper stresses that examining these previously unpublished findings does not necessarily give a comprehensive view of the US meat sector, but it does give a “snapshot” of some of the issues “rarely details in public.” The article also points out that there are approximately 6,000 US plants regularly inspected by Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS).

“The US meat industry has a responsibility to clean up its act,” David Wallinga, senior health officer at the Natural Resources Defence Council, which obtained some of the documents, told The Guardian.

“One dataset covering 13 large red meat and poultry plants over two years (2015-17) shows an average of more than 150 violations a week, and 15,000 violations over the entire period. Thousands of similar violations were recorded at ten pork-producing plants over a five-year period up until 2016, further documents show,” says the article.

“Another batch of previously unpublished documents shows frequent failings at 24 plants operated by Pilgrim’s Pride who recently bought the British chicken giant Moy Park. The company slaughters 34 million birds each week and produces one in five of the chickens in the country.”

“More than 16,000 non-compliance reports on Pilgrim’s Pride operations detail 36,612 individual regulatory violations - an average of 1,464 a month - at the 24 plants during a 25-month period between 2014 and 2016.”

In one of the incidents detailed in the article, one inspector saw chicken drumsticks piling up on the floor, and instructed workers to pick them up “to be reconditioned with chlorinated water.” During another incident, which took place in a bagging department, 36 shrink-wrapped whole birds were found on the floor.

“In my presence, the establishments began initiating their corrective action by picking up all affected product off the floor ... to be carried to the establishment’s designated wash station to be thoroughly rinsed off,” an inspector noted.

Internal FSIS records also highlight several violations at pork producing meat plants and in one incident recorded at a plant run by Swift Pork, 48 pig carcasses were found to have fallen on the floor because of defective equipment. This led to contamination with “black trolley grease, floor grime and bloody smears.”

“The line was stopped for about 15 minutes. The carcasses were sent to be trimmed first then steam vacuumed with 180F water,” according to the records.

The statement says: “The US meat and poultry sector is one of the most highly regulated industries in America,” said Al Almanza, JBS’s global head of food safety and quality assurance, and former head of FSIS for 39 years. “Non-compliance reports are issued by USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) inspection personnel to document when an establishment has not met a specific regulatory requirement. However, the vast majority of non-compliance issues are addressed immediately and have no impact on food safety.”

“All of the documented incidents regarding JBS [Swift Pork] and Pilgrim’s were immediately addressed by our facilities. None of these incidents put anyone at risk or resulted in any adulterated product released into commerce. Food safety is achieved by implementing processes that consistently detect and correct issues before products are released into commerce. Our team at JBS and Pilgrim’s is committed to the highest food safety standards and we partner with USDA every day to ensure that consumers can enjoy safe and quality products with confidence.”

Fears about “dirty meat” entering the UK under a post-Brexit trade deal
The hygiene breaches have raised alarms bells with some UK campaigners who are not only concerned over the details of the Guardian’s report but are worried that so-called “dirty meat” could come into Britain as part of trade deals in the wake of Brexit.

One Labour MP, Kerry McCarthy, former UK shadow environment minister, wants reassurances that standards will not be allowed to slip into the UK and US negotiate potential trade deals.

The Guardian article comes at the same time as the new analysis by the UK Alliance for food and farming, Sustain, which claims that the percentage of people who fall ill with food poisoning annually is ten times higher in the US than the UK.

Sustain examined the food safety records of the US, as the UK Government has already set up working groups with them to discuss a possible future trade deal in the wake of Brexit.

Here is what Sustain says it found:

• The US reports higher rates of illness from foodborne illness than in the UK. Annually, 14.7 percent (48m) of the US population suffers from an illness, versus 1.5 percent (1m) in the UK. This is nearly ten times the percentage of the population.
• The US reports higher rates of deaths from foodborne illness than in the UK. The annual death rate in the US is 3,000 per annum, versus 500 in the UK. (The US population is about five times the size of the UK.)
• The US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention reports around 380 deaths in the US each year attributed to foodborne salmonella poisoning. The most recent epidemiological lab data from Public Health England show no deaths in England and Wales from salmonella between 2005 and 2015. Salmonella food poisoning is most commonly caused by consumption of contaminated food of animal origin, such as beef, chicken, milk, fish or eggs.
• The Food Standards Agency recently updated its guidance to say that eating soft-boiled British Lion Mark eggs is now safe, thanks to a dramatic reduction in the presence of salmonella. By contrast, the US Food and Drug Administration still advises US consumers to hard boil their eggs due to salmonella fears. They report 79,000 cases of illness and 30 deaths a year from salmonella-infected eggs.
• Campylobacter – another food poisoning pathogen found in animal products, especially chicken – causes 1.3m illnesses every year in the US, and their frequency of outbreak is on the rise. The most recent US laboratory-confirmed infection data shows an infection rate from campylobacter of 6,289 per 100k of the population. By contrast, Public Health England lab data for England and Wales from 2015 showed a campylobacter infection rate of 96.22 per 100k population. Also, the Food Standards Agency has reported a 17 percent decline in laboratory reports of Campylobacter in the UK in 2016, saving the economy an estimated £13m each year from reduced with NHS costs and fewer days off work.
• The US reports an average 1,591 cases of listeriosis a year. This compares to an average of 177 a year in England and Wales. Listeriosis is usually caught from eating food such as unpasteurized milk, soft cheeses and chilled ready to eat foods like pâté.

After publishing these findings, Sustain also flags up flags food safety fears for future UK trade deals.

“Our analysis shows that if we accept imported meat without robust standards, we may also import increased food poisoning and possibly even deaths. The US is demanding we drop our food standards for trade, but our research shows cheap US meat will come at a cost to our health and economy,” said Kath Dalmeny, CEO of Sustain.

“New UK trade deals must support hygienic farming methods and good animal welfare. There needs to be proper public and scientific scrutiny of all negotiations that affect what we eat.