Agriculture Department Says it's Impossible to Determine if Slaughterhouses and Packing Plants are Obeying Rules to Keep Mad Cow Disease from Humans

The Agriculture Department Says it's Impossible to Determine Whether Slaughterhouses and Packing Plants are Obeying Rules Designed to Keep Mad Cow Disease from Reaching Humans

Again, the title says it all. What more can I say other than….watch out!

Auditors can't say whether meat plants followed rules

http://www.wcax.com

WASHINGTON

The Agriculture Department says it's impossible to determine whether slaughterhouses and packing plants are obeying rules designed to keep mad cow disease from reaching humans.

The safeguards were put in place after the first U-S case of mad cow disease in 2003. The rules require that at-risk tissues must be removed when older animals are slaughtered.

The audit, performed throughout 2005, turned up a case of mad cow disease last year in a Texas cow.

The department's inspector general didn't find that at-risk tissues like brains or spines from older animals had entered the food supply.

The Agriculture Department cited slaughterhouses or processing plants more than a thousand times in 2004 and 2005 for violating the rules.

On the Net:

Food Safety and Inspection Service: http://www.fsis.usda.gov/