January 4, 2013

Food & Water Watch, the American consumer advocacy group, has urged the USDA to reconsider its decision about allowing Australia's newly privatised meat inspection system to be considered on the same level as that of the US.

In a letter to agriculture secretary, Tom Vilsack, the group pointed to repeated discoveries of meat imported from Australia that was contaminated with fecal material and digestive tract contents.

The group claimed that one letter from a USDA official to Australian food safety counterparts summed up the problems in imported products from Australia: "Within the last month, there have been five additional zero tolerance [fecal material/ingesta] point-of-entry violations in four separate establishments, including one establishment that had repetitive violations during this month [December], as well as earlier this calendar year."

Food & Water Watch also cited correspondence with Dr John Langbridge, veterinary counsel to the Australian Meat Industry Council, who wrote: "[Australian] plants supplying meat to the US will need to review their dressing procedures, their carcass and meat hygiene monitoring procedures and their interpretation of 'zero tolerance' defects given these [December] rejections."

Langbridge added that he believed the Australian Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) was concerned that the American authorities would downgrade its recognition of the country's meat production systems from low risk, which in turn would increase the rate of port-of-entry sampling for exports.

According to the veterinary counsel, DAFF is considering taking retaliatory measures against US meat products exported to Australia by tightening up on inspection procedures at Australian ports.