Bad Politics, Bad Meat

In the summer of 1996, the Clinton administration began implementing the nation’s first new meat inspection system in 90 years, reassuring Americans preparing for their summer picnics that federal food inspectors would discard their medieval “poke and sniff” inspection methods and adopt modern scientific tests to detect microscopic pathogens.

The new system, however, was only partly phased in, and consumers seem less protected than ever. Last month, the Agriculture Department said it found more meat contaminated with the E. coli bacterium in 1998 than it had in the previous four years combined. And last week, the federal Centers for Disease Control reported that hot dogs tainted with a deadly strain of listeria bacteria had killed at least 11 adults, caused five miscarriages and sickened about 73 people in 14 states.

On Wednesday, federal regulators said they are working to determine where the breakdown in food safety lies, but the truth is that they already know plenty about what’s wrong and how to make it right. For years reputable food safety experts for consumer groups have been unsuccessfully petitioning Congress to take these modest steps toward needed reform:

* Require meat processing plants to test for dangerous microbes. While the food inspection system begun three years ago requires slaughterhouses that produce only raw meat to test for E. coli bacteria, it does not require meat processing plants to test for any harmful microbes. At a minimum, Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman should require listeria testing in processed foods because that bacterium breeds well in cold environments like refrigerated supermarket shelves.

* Set federal rules governing how meat processors determine the “sell-by” and “pull-by” dates they stamp on hot dogs, bologna and other packaged foods. Once, luncheon meats would expire several weeks after being packaged; now, preservatives allow “sell-by” dates to stretch up to half a year, even though the government admits it has no research to indicate that preservatives can ward off bacteria like listeria for that long.

* Grant “mandatory notification and recall authority” to the Agriculture Department and the Food and Drug Administration. Currently, meat and poultry manufacturers, restaurants and other food industries are not required to report contamination when they find it, and federal food agencies have no authority to require companies to recall tainted food. No federal agency can conduct responsible oversight this way. Last month, Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) introduced a bill to grant such authority in the Senate, and later this month House Democrats will introduce their own version.

* Consolidate food oversight into a single federal agency. Currently food oversight is scattered over six federal agencies; even the inspectors themselves often don’t know who’s in charge.

Food safety has become needlessly politicized, with each side submitting reform plans it knows the other will reject: The White House, for instance, proposed funding reform by taking away tobacco subsidies, which enraged Southern Republicans.

The listeria victims illustrate the costs of this cynical game. Washington needs to put politics aside long enough to let science take its rightful role in food oversight.