Meat + Poultry - October 2005 - 17

Washington
After the storm
By Bernard Shire
meat&poultry@sosland.com

Since Aug. 29, most of America's collective attention has focused on the
impact of Hurricane Katrina and the
country's ability to deal with the storm
that virtually destroyed New Orleans
and much of the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama.
Many news stories have focused on the
country's resolve to help those in need, as
donations to the cause have exceeded $1
billion. Plenty of attention has also been
paid to the lack of preparation among
local, state and federal governments to
deal with a calamity of this dimension.
The "blame" has been directed at the
U.S. government, particularly the Federal
Emergency Management Agency, the
State of Louisiana, and the city government of New Orleans. In the aftermath
of Katrina, other parts of government are
doing some introspection about whether
they were ready for Katrina. Agency officials are faced with assessing whether
their preparedness would improve in the
event of similar disasters in the future.
Participating in this navel-gazing is
the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, including its meat and poultry inspection
agency, the Food Safety and Inspection
Service. While F.S.I.S. has a large list of
stakeholders, most of its work involves
two: the meat, poultry and egg products
industries, and the consumers who
purchase those products. The agency
provides warnings about adulterated
products, as well as more general public
health alerts. During and after Katrina,
F.S.I.S. provided food safety warnings,
including precautions about consuming
food and water after power outages and
when flooding occurs. The agency posted warnings about weather emergency
steps to follow concerning "Tropical
Storm Katrina" on Aug. 25, four days
before Katrina grew to a hurricane and
struck the coast. It shared advice about
how to keep food safe during emergencies. No doubt, a lot of this advice was
garnered from U.S.D.A. experiences
with the increasing number of hur18

MEAT&POULTRY

October 2005

ricanes hitting the United
States, going back 13 years,
when Hurricane Andrew devastated Florida.
U.S.D.A. didn't seem to be
as well prepared for the other
major part of its mission,
making sure that inspection
is available at establishments even
if communications are not working,
and removing products that may be
adulterated due to power outages or
flooding. This may be because F.S.I.S.
relies on its policy that bars slaughter
or processing in inspected establishments if no inspection is available.
As an F.S.I.S. spokesman put it, "It is
illegal to slaughter or process outside
of federal inspection."
Every day the meat and poultry
industry operates processing facilities
without federal inspectors being present, particularly in small and very small
plants. These inspectors must operate
on a "patrol" basis, visiting three or four
plants a day, spending only an hour or
two at each facility.
After Katrina struck, F.S.I.S. officials
said all inspection personnel in the district covering the Gulf Coast were accounted for. A number of plants were
damaged or destroyed by the storm and
are either rebuilding or moved to other
locations. F.S.I.S. said that when plants
were ready to go back on line, they
should contact the agency's district
office and request inspection. At the
same time, in cases where plants had
been damaged and were ready to begin
operating again, F.S.I.S. was planning
to assess the plant's physical structure
and make sure it would be operating
under sanitary conditions. Plants that
had not been damaged were requested
to contact the district office and request
inspection, so inspectors would know
where to go.
F.S.I.S. brought in additional people
to help its inspectors carry out their
duties and to help plants that were
damaged or flooded get ready to
resume operations. The agency was
not prepared to deal with the communications problems caused by the

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storm, particularly that cell phones and
electronic communications weren't
working. The inspectors had no access to the electronic field version of
Performance Based Inspection System.
Undoubtedly, how to run P.B.I.S. and
to communicate during a natural disaster of this scope is a problem that the
agency will be working to solve.
F.S.I.S. also deployed program investigators to help identify and dispose of
any adulterated poultry, meat and egg
products, but as of this writing, the
agency doesn't know how much adulterated product there is. According to
Steve Pretanik of the National Chicken
Council, a number of growing houses
were lost and processing plants in the
Gulf Coast were closed down, but most
were restored. A number of processors
were working together, sharing feed
and ice, he said. According to F.S.I.S.,
all plants in Alabama were restored to
operation, and 19 small facilities were
closed in Louisiana. In Mississippi, two
cold storage facilities and a processing
plant were closed. One plant, Monda
Fine Meats, was ahead of the game. It
processed all of its raw product before
Katrina hit and sent everything to its
warehouses, which are out of the area.
Undoubtedly, Hurricane Katrina has
created many "would have" and "should
have" scenarios for U.S.D.A. to examine in the coming months.

Bernard Shire is a food safety consultant
and writer for Shire & Associates in
Lancaster, Pa., and previously was
director of regulatory and legislative
affairs for the American Association of
Meat Processors.
We would like to hear from you- your comments
and questions about this article are welcome.
E-mail the author at: meat&poultry@sosland.com

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Meat + Poultry - October 2005

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