NCBA Calls for Public Meeting on Importation of Cooked Meat

The National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) is opposing proposed changes to current regulations governing the importation of certain animals, meat, and other animal products, and has called for the USDA APHIS to hold an open public meeting as soon as possible to bring industry experts together to discuss this issue. 

In a letter to the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, NCBA made its comments regarding the proposed changes to the regulations regarding verification of cooking requirement for products from countries where Foot and Mouth Disease, Rinderpest, and other diseases exist. NCBA carefully reviewed the proposed changes and consulted with numerous industry experts on this matter.

“As a result of our review, we want to go on record as opposed to the proposed changes,” stated Gary Wilson, Ohio producer and Chairman of NCBA’s Cattle Health and Well-Being Committee. “The events of 9/11 have illustrated the lengths some groups and individuals will go to disrupt our economy. In this regard, we feel it is time to re-evaluate the risk associated with the importation of cooked meat products to the U.S. to ensure we are using modern, science based, ‘best available technology’ and statistically valid sampling procedures to ensure we are indeed preventing the importation of foreign animal diseases.”

“The proposed rule, published May 22, 2002, fails to include an analysis of the level of risk associated with the importation of cooked meat products, the change in risk the proposal would offer, the statistical validity of taking one sample per cooking batch, the impact of thawing and refreezing of samples and their impact on the validity of the ‘pink juice test’ methodology and many more important points,” stated Wilson.

NCBA also stated that the USDA-Food Safety Inspection Service has long been on record challenging the validity of the "pink juice test" as a reliable means of documenting proper cooking of ground beef from a food safety perspective.

“There have been numerous studies documenting conditions where premature browning occurs and for which the pink juice test would fail to indicate proper cooking,” Wilson said.  “USDA-FSIS has moved to recommend actual temperature of the product as the only reliable means of assuring proper cooking. This fact leads us to believe the use of TID's (Temperature Indicator Devices) in all cooked products sent to the U.S., coupled with statistically valid sampling to verify compliance may be the only effective means of documenting compliance and ensuring we have science based systems in place to prevent the introduction of foreign animal diseases.”

As a supporter for free and fair trade, NCBA has requested that USDA APHIS host an open forum to discuss this matter to ensure that trade of cooked meat products is based on sound science.

For the full text of the proposed rule, go to:  http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgibin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=2002_register&docid=fr22my02-18