CFA submitted the following comments to USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) on the agency’s response to a peer review of its hog slaughter risk assessment. Before soliciting the peer review, FSIS used the risk assessment to justify a proposal to expand its controversial “HIMP” pilot program, currently in place at five large hog slaughter facilities. In the recent peer review, three out of five reviewers concluded that the agency’s risk assessment was fatally flawed, but FSIS maintains that its original determination in favor of the proposed rule nevertheless holds. The CFA comments urge FSIS to go back to the drawing board, update its microbiological performance standards for pork, and develop data-driven reforms aimed at actually improving food safety, rather than just industry profits.
