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back to Organic Consumers Assn. Stop Food Irradiation page US food industry to fight USDA's use of Salmonella tests September 6, 2001 WASHINGTON, Sept 5 (Reuters) - A U.S. food industry group said Wednesday it would fight a Senate legislative proposal to punish meat and poultry plants that fail to satisfy salmonella food safety standards set by the U.S. Agriculture Department. The National Food Processors Association said it generally supports the USDA's bacteria testing program to measure how well plants are reducing meat and poultry contamination. But failure to meet the standards should not be used by the USDA to withdraw federal meat inspectors and, in effect, close down a plant, the group said. Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, a Democrat, is expected to introduce an amendment to the fiscal 2002 agriculture spending bill that would allow the USDA to use the salmonella tests as an enforcement tool. The spending bill to fund all USDA programs is expected to reach the Senate floor for debate next week, according to Kelly Johnston, vice president of the food processors' group. Harkin's amendment is designed to overturn a controversial federal court decision last year that stopped the USDA from using salmonella tests to measure if a ground beef plant owned by Supreme Beef Processors Inc was clean and sanitary. The USDA appealed the Texas court ruling to a federal appeals court, and arguments are expected in October. The lawsuit has been closely watched by industry and consumer groups as a key test of USDA rules requiring plants to adopt a set of scientifically based checkpoints to cut the risk of salmonella and other dangerous bacteria. "We believe the Harkin amendment is ill-timed," Johnston told reporters. "There is a fundamental question here about using salmonella tests as an enforcement tool. It's not a good approach." A spokeswoman for Harkin was not immediately available for comment. Meat companies and food processors contend that the salmonella test results are an arbitrary and unfair way to measure the cleanliness of processing plant. The bacteria is commonly found on many types of fresh foods. The USDA salmonella tests allow a maximum 7.5 percent rate of salmonella contamination in ground beef. Johnston said the industry supports testing for dangerous bacteria in raw meat but believes the USDA's salmonella test standards failed to use sound statistical methods or seasonal and regional variations. Last year Congress ordered a National Academy of Sciences panel and a USDA food safety advisory committee to look at whether salmonella testing is a valid way to measure food safety at a plant. Salmonella can cause vomiting, diarrhea and fever in healthy adults, and can be deadly for the elderly or people with weak immune systems. An estimated 600 Americans die from salmonella annually out of 1.4 million illnesses, according to federal health data.