Cargill and the Pew Institute are calling for reforms to
U.S. meat inspection to shift it from inspectors’ opinions to greater reliance
on data.
The changes it urges are similar to those the Canadian Food
Inspection Agency has been making as it relies more on lab test results and
less on visual appearance of meat.
The report also calls for a merger into a new agency that
would take over from the United States Department of Agriculture and the Food
and Drug Administration.
Canada recently shifted meat inspection from the agriculture
department to Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has long
been responsible for enforcement of regulations adopted by other agencies, such
as Consumer Affairs (fair weights, measurements and labeling) and Health.
