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In
an attempt to remedy the lack of data that exists on the impacts of USDA's
1996 Pathogen Reduction/Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (PR/HACCP)
regulation, USDA's Economic Research Service (ERS) funded a nationwide
survey of meat and poultry processing plants. Economists, policymakers,
and others rely on these kinds of data to determine costs, benefits, and
impacts of food safety regulations. The ERS survey asked meat and poultry
processors which food safety methods and technologies they used to comply
with the PR/HACCP rule and the costs they incurred in doing so, for the
year 2000. More specifically, the survey queried plant respondents about
these facets of their operations:
- Effects of the PR/HACCP rule on operations and costs
- Characteristics of the surveyed plants
- Food safety issues dealing with plant operations, sanitation, equipment,
product and environmental testing, and dehiding (cattle slaughter only)
Returned questionnaires came from 996 respondents (861 meat slaughter
and processors and 135 poultry slaughter and processors) out of a sample
of 1,725 plants identified in the Enhance Facilities Database (EFD) of
the Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) as being primarily engaged in
meat or poultry slaughter or processing. Completed questionnaires were
returned by plants that slaughtered 42 percent of all cattle, 75 percent
of all hogs, 42 percent of all chickens, and 48 percent of all turkeys,
and accounted for 55 percent of all processed meat and poultry products
from processors with no slaughter operations. The overall survey response
rate was 57 percent.
View the summary results from the ERS survey:
FSIS will be conducting similar
surveys of the meat, poultry, and egg industries. The first surveys of
the shell egg packing and egg products industries were initiated in November
2003. Subsequent surveys of the meat and poultry industries will be conducted
in 2004-2005. Summary results of the surveys will be available to the
public. Contact Michael Ollinger
for more information.
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