The origin and safety of imports, especially from China, is under increasing scrutiny following the discovery of the banned chemical melamine in pet food and feed destined for US livestock.
The American Meat Institute (AMI), in a letter sent last week to Rep. Rosa DeLauro and Sen. Herb Kohl, who both chair Agriculture subcommittees at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), said that US meat and poultry is safe.
J Patrick Boyle, president and chief executive officer of the AMI, and letter author, said that it was well known that all imported meat and poultry products are subject to re-inspection and every box of product is recorded and accounted for by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).
"Unfortunately, some groups have public policy positions supporting mandatory county-of-origin labeling for red meat that are solely for the purpose of erecting trade barriers, especially directed at Canada and Mexico - our two largest export markets for red meat."
The letter is in response to correspondence from Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund (F-Calf), which claimed that consumers cannot rely on current government operations to protect imported food safety, and that origin labeling should be introduced immediately.
"The claims made in that letter are irresponsible at worst and at best misleading - with respect to the handling and inspection of imported meat products," said Boyle. "To assert that any country-of-origin labeling regime would have an impact on food safety or the integrity of a food product is absurd."
Currently, there are 34 countries eligible to ship meat products to the United States and each of those countries food safety inspection systems must be certified by USDA to be equivalent to the federal food safety inspection system in the US.
These countries' food safety inspection systems are certified annually by the USDA, which also subjects foreign plants to random visits, according to Boyle.
"Significantly, a large percentage of imported meat products are further processed in federally inspected US plants," he said.
Fears have arisen over meat and poultry imports, especially from South-East Asia, because of outbreaks of avian flu, and more recently the discovery of melamine in feed.
The chemical that was originally discovered in contaminated pet food has led to the deaths of hundreds of dogs and cats as a result. The scare widened in the US after it was found to have entered the human food chain after pet food scrap was used as a feed supplement at a number of hog and chicken farms.
Melamine is an industrial chemical found in plastics. The US found that the chemical had been fraudulently added to wheat gluten and rice protein from China. The country has now banned its exporters from using the chemical as an additive to boost protein levels in feeds.
Following the outbreak, the United States Department of Agriculture estimates it has detained 46 Chinese shipments of vegetable proteins. With no testing certification yet received to confirm melamine is present, all restricted shipments continue to remain in USDA detention.
According to a recent report by the Washington Post, the USDA last month seized over 1,000 shipments of tainted Chinese dietary supplements, toxic cosmetics and counterfeit medicines.
Mandatory country-of-origin labeling was approved by Congress in 2002 and has been implemented successfully for seafood, while its application to other food groups has been delayed.
The AMI has requested that country-of-origin labeling be rejected and funding for inspections and food safety innitiatives continues.
