WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has rejected a petition from the chicken industry to speed up poultry inspection lines, cheering public-health advocates who warned that a line-speed increase would harm workers and food safety.
The National Chicken Council asked the USDA in September to let meatpackers operating under a new inspection system to run their plants "at any line speed" they could handle safely, having failed to convince the Obama administration to raise the limit from 140 birds-per-minute.
In its letter rejecting the petition, USDA said that the poultry industry "did not include data to demonstrate that inspectors can conduct an effective carcass-by-carcass inspection at line speeds faster than those authorized" under the new inspection system.
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