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For Background:
To:
PRESS COVERING EXPRESSED
FOOD SAFETY CONCERNS
Subject:
STATEMENT OF TYSON FOODS ON NEW MEAT AND POULTRY INSPECTION PROGRAM
From:
Archie Schaffer, Director of Media, Public and Governmental Affairs
July 8, 1996
Tyson Foods and the rest of the U.S. poultry industry has for years advocated
a more science based inspection system for meat and poultry. While we have
not yet seen the final rule and, therefore, cannot comment on all the specifics
of it, it appears that this new rule is a step in the right direction.
Tyson has been developing and implementing HACCP programs in its processing
plants for the past four or five years, and has had HACCP in place in all
our plants for at least two years. Once the new final rule is published,
we will make whatever modifications might be necessary, if any, to bring
our own HACCP programs into compliance with USDA requirements.
The suggestion being made by some that poultry is being treated more leniently
than beef in the new regulations is pure nonsense. The methodology for testing
chickens and beef is different, but that is because chickens are not cows.
While the inspection methodology is different for chickens it is just as,
if not more, stringent. The baseline numbers allowed for chickens are higher
than beef because while the entire chicken carcass is tested, only a very
small portion of each beef carcass is sampled. An average 3 pound chicken
has approximately 2000 sq. cm. of surface area, all of which is to be tested,
while for cattle only 300 sq. cm. of an average 750 lb. beef carcass is
to be tested.
We are convinced that we are already producing the safest poultry products
to be found anywhere in the world. However, Tyson Foods remains committed
to using any available new techniques and technology that might make a safe
and wholesome product even safer.
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