Food & Water Watch has filed suit in federal court to stop the
implementation of United States Department of Agriculture’s new poultry inspection rules.
“These rules essentially privatize poultry inspection and pave the
way for others in the meat industry to police themselves,” Wenonah Hauter,
executive director of Food & Water Watch, said in a news release.
“The USDA’s decision to embrace the scheme —an initiative lobbied
for by the meat industry for more than a decade — flies in the face of the
agency’s mandate to protect consumers. What’s more, we believe it’s illegal.”
In its suit, Food & Water Watch charges the new system violates
the Poultry Products Inspection Act (PPIA), a law passed in 1957 that gives
USDA the authority to protect consumer health and welfare by assuring that
poultry products are wholesome, not adulterated, and properly marked, labeled
and packaged.
There are similar poultry-inspection reforms being implemented in
Canada, but so far no consumer-led protests.
