In his weekly address to the nation, President Obama promised to amend federal meat inspection rules to require a total ban on the slaughter of cattle that become nonambulatory after passing initial inspection.
The final rule would require all cattle that are nonambulatory disabled (”downer”) cattle at any time prior to slaughter at an official establishment, including those that become non-ambulatory disabled after passing ante-mortem inspection, be condemned and properly disposed of according to Food Safety and Inspection Service regulations. Previously, decisions were made on a case-by-case basis.
Plants must notify inspectors when cattle become nonambulatory after passing the pre-slaughter inspection. Inspectors will tag these cattle as “U.S. Condemned” and these cattle must be humanely euthanized.
President Obama accused the Bush administration yesterday of creating a “hazard to public health” by failing to curb food contamination problems, and he announced new leadership and other changes aimed at modernizing food-safety laws.
Obama also said he will ask Congress for $1 billion in new funds to add inspectors and modernize laboratories, and announced that the Agriculture Department is moving ahead with a rule change banning all sick or disabled cattle from entering the food supply. The change had stalled during the last months of the Bush administration, which allowed some “downer cows” to be slaughtered for sale.
“There are certain things only a government can do,” Obama said. “And one of those things is ensuring that the foods we eat, and the medicines we take, are safe and do not cause us harm.”
The announcements signaled another shift from the policies of President George W. Bush, whom Democrats accused of ignoring a worsening food-safety problem and politicizing the work of the FDA. The changes also follow outbreaks of illness from pathogens in food, including peanut products contaminated with salmonella that have killed nine and sickened more than 700 in recent months.
Most disabled cattle were banned from the U.S. food supply in January 2004 after the discovery of the first U.S. case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, which has been linked to downer cattle. But the Bush administration allowed exceptions and did not follow through on promises to plug the loophole last year after the uproar over the beef recall.
Obama noted in his address that many of the nation’s food-safety laws “have not been updated since they were written in the time of Teddy Roosevelt,” and said the FDA was “underfunded and understaffed” during Bush’s tenure. Obama said that outbreaks of illness from contaminated food have risen from 100 a year in the 1990s to 350 a year now and that only 5 percent of the nation’s 150,000 food processing plants are inspected each year. “That is a hazard to public health,” he said. “It is unacceptable.”
“No parent should have to worry that their child is going to get sick from their lunch, just as no family should have to worry that the medicines they are buying will cause them harm,” he said. “Protecting the safety of our food and drugs is one of the most fundamental responsibilities government has.”
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