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Diving Briefs:
- USDA plans to permanently allow pork and poultry processing plants to operate faster line speeds. The meat industry was proclaimed by critics about the potential risk of food safety and workers’ health.
- The department said it will expand the exemption to maintain a higher line speed for certain meat facilities.
- USDA also ends the requirements that a company that operates higher line speeds should report workers’ safety data. This information has been used to determine whether faster production speeds contribute to workplace injuries.
Dive Insights:
Meat Packer has been trying to increase the workplace and production speed for many years, and insisted that plants should run faster to maintain profitability. National Pork Producers Council says some producers can cause almost $ 10 losses without the ability to run faster.
The current pig plant can have 1,106 per hour, but using the pilot program allows six producers to work faster. In poultry, about 35%of the producers were exempted to exceed 140 birds per minute.
It is not clear whether the USDA will completely expand or remove the exemption system. During the first term of President Donald Trump, the administration attempted to eliminate the speed limit of pork, but was forced to restore the threshold by the court order in 2021.
Labor and food safety groups have a faster processing speed leading to risk of workers’ health. It is more difficult to find potential pollution.
Stuart Appelbaum, the chairman of the retail store, wholesale and department store union, said, “If the line speed increases, the worker will harm it. Perhaps it will endanger the health and safety of all Americans who eat chickens when the production speed increases. 15,000 poultry workers in facilities across the United States
According to USDA studies in January, pork and poultry plant workers are at risk of causing lucidal syndrome and other musculoskeletal disorders while performing their jobs compared to other manufacturing staff. But the faster line speed was unclear, and it depended on the level of employees and equipment defects of the facility.
The National Chicken Council said that the injuries of poultry workers fell below the general manufacturing level in 2023, and “the industry is making a significant progress in workers’ safety.” All other countries, including Canada, Germany and Brazil, work at more than 200 birds per minute, the group pointed out.
Harrison Kircher, chairman of the National Chicken Council, said in a statement, “The current approach has been competitive for the exempted companies. Thank you. “
Chicken processors have recently seen that consumers are looking for cheaper protein options compared to beef, and recent profits are increasing to increase production by high demand pressure companies. Pork producers also had a chance to profit, tariffs and pork supply, but new uncertainty.
