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About this time most of the larger food chains were no longer offering New York dressed poultry, but were selling eviscerated, readyto-cook poultry exclusively, thereby increasing the volume of sales in this area by hundreds of tons.

Some meat inspectors were then sent out to the three major poultry producing areas-New England States, New York, Pennsylvania and the Eastern Shore, which comprises Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia-which were at that time shipping much of their products into the city of Newark.

Of a total of 15 plants visited, only 2 were found to be free from pertinent violations of the Newark ordinances. Some of the conditions observed at these plants were as follows:

No evidence of qualified ante mortem or post mortem inspection of poultry.

Poultry not chilled for proper length of time before shipment; internal temperature taken at some establishments were as high as 60° Fahrenheit.

No hot water or live steam available.

Hoods over moving chain throughout line containing much rust flakes, dirt, and dust.

Ceilings and walls throughout plants containing peeling paint and condensate over product.

Sparrows and other small birds observed nesting in plants and flying over some of the operations.

Broken window panes present.

Hood over scalding tank rusty and dirty.

No screens present on any doors or windows throughout the plant. Overhead pipes, beams, ceiling, and upper sidewalls covered with dust, dirt, and cobwebs.

Broken window panes present.

Plant doors left open, not self-closing.

No hot water or live steam available to wash and clean equipment. Holding station for live poultry, floors and ceiling accumulation of dirt, trash, and unused equipment.

Feed troughs and chicken batteries rusty, corroded, and very dirty. Conveyor belt very dirty and large accumulation of dust. Secondhand containers used to pack poultry parts.

Wooden crates assembled in unclean room.

In the light of these findings, I could take no other action but to exclude these establishments from offering their products for sale within the city of Newark, N. J.

While this tour of inspections was very revealing, it was a very expensive program for the city of Newark, N. J., to maintain. During this year we had another ordinance passed which created a poultry inspection fund whereby the processor shipping into the Newark marketing area would place on deposit a sum of money which would be held in his name and the cost of travel, meals, and lodgings deducted from this sum, to cover expenses of inspectors.

Many of the above-mentioned poultry processing plants which were excluded from sale, and wishing to retain the Newark marketing area, very promptly and efficiently corrected the violations observed by meat inspectors under my direction. This proved conclusively to us that competent inspection and strict adherence to the terms of the ordinances would insure the consumers in our marketing area clean, whole

some poultry and poultry products free from contamination and dis

ease.

All of these plants visited bore the inspection legend of a State, city, or USDA inspectional service. This included the USDA type of inspection which is for sanitation and given to plants processing undrawn poultry, and the legend of inspection for wholesomeness which is performed at plants that are eviscerating and producing ready-to-cook poultry.

As recent as last month, a poultry processing plant in the State of Virginia, which operates under USDA inspection for wholesomeness. shipped into the city of Newark poultry which was in violation of our ordinance. The product was unclean and testicles were observed left in the body cavities of many of the chickens.

These conditions, when found, were under the inspection of the United States Department of Agriculture, Poultry Inspection Branch. Our experiences with the Red Meat Inspection Service of the Department of Agriculture has been just the opposite. We have found that they have always been very quick to correct and follow up violations which were pointed out to them or which they found in their own inspection service.

This has also been found to be so over the years in our relationships with the Red Meat Service.

In my opinion, they have the know-how and the competent personnel to properly handle poultry inspection.

Senator CLEMENTS. Your recommendation is that any compulsory system be under the Meat Inspection Branch?

Mr. HASKIN. That is correct.

Senator CLEMENTS. Any questions?
Senator WILLIAMS. No questions.

Senator CLEMENTS. I want to compliment you on your statement, and the rapidity with which you gave it to us.

Mr. HASKIN. I recognize the limitation of time.

Senator CLEMENTS. That is correct.

Senator WILLIAMS. And we also ask you, as well as others, if you wish to comment further on some of the proposals or amendments which have been submitted to the committee, we would be glad to have your supplementary remarks.

Mr. HASKIN. If I can get a copy of that print.
Senator CLEMENTS. We hope to get it for you.

Senator WILLIAMS. It will be available at the desk later today.

Senator CLEMENTS. We certainly hope to get it later in the day, and that applies to the other witnesses.

The next witness is Dr. Dan Schlosser, Association of Food and Drug Officials of the United States.

STATEMENT OF DR. DANIEL B. SCHLOSSER, CHAIRMAN, MEAT AND POULTRY COMMITTEE, ASSOCIATION OF FOOD AND DRUG OFFICIALS OF THE UNITED STATES, INDIANAPOLIS, IND.

Dr. SCHLOSSER. Pardon me for the dark glasses. I was playing with the children, and I broke my others.

Senator CLEMENTS. That is perfectly all right. No one has to explain why they have to use them.

Go right ahead.

Dr. SCHLOSSER. I will summarize this.

The Association of Food and Drug Officials of the United States is made up of the State officials, local officials, that have to do with the enforcement of the food and drug laws of their respective States.

The jurisdiction in 23 of these States is under the boards of health or the departments of health. In 21 of the States it is under the Department of Agriculture. In the other 3 States, 1 is the university, and I don't remember which the other 2 are under.

At the May meeting, the 60th annual meeting of the association, or the 50th anniversary of the Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act, which was held May 7, 1956, at New York, the association passed two resolutions. I will read those resolutions:

Whereas there are now under consideration in the Congress of the United States a number of bills which would make mandatory the continuous inspec∙tion for wholesomeness of poultry and poultry food products: Therefore, be it Resolved, That this association be on record as favoring the broad principle of mandatory inspection and in support of the following principles for guidance of the Congress in formulating this legislation:

1. That the general approach of the Murray bill be followed, rather than the approach represented by the Aiken bill.

2. That the inspection service be placed in a governmental agency having a traditionally consumer protective purpose; namely, the Food and Drug Administration or the Meat Inspection Branch of the United States Department of Agriculture..

3. That any exemption from compliance with the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act be limited to the extent of applicability of the continuous inspection law as enacted; and that there be no exemption from compliance with applicable State and municipal food laws.

The other resolution adopted at the same meeting was:

Whereas diseased poultry can be eliminated during slaughter and processing operations only by adequate ante-mortem and post-mortem inspection procedures; and

Whereas if these procedures are not followed during slaughter, dressing, and evisceration, the evidence of disease will be largely removed by the eviscerating process and making its subsequent detection by control officials impossible, and thereby depriving the consumer of adequate protection; and

Whereas the holding or shipment of uneviscerated dressed poultry to facilitate later evaluation for disease is repugnant and inconsistent with modern-day sanitation concepts: Therefore, be it

Resolved, That this association go on record as favoring legislation making mandatory such ante-mortem and post-mortem inspection as is necessary to insure elimination of diseased poultry moving in interstate commerce and further requiring the immediate evisceration after slaughter of all such poultry and that the Secretary forward this resolution to the appropriate congressional committee.

The Murray bill, as referred to in the first resolution, was Senate bill 3176. At that time S. 3983 had not been introduced, so you can see that the association at its meeting, at which approximately 300 members were present at this business meeting, went on record at that time that the mandatory inspection of poultry be placed either in the Food and Drug Administration or the Meat Inspection Branch. Senator CLEMENTS. Any questions?

Senator WILLIAMS. No questions.

We apologize to you, along with the others, for the need for asking that these statements be condensed; and the committee would appreciate any supplementary statements that you wish to offer in line with the amendments that have been suggested.

Dr. SCHLOSSER. We will get a copy of that, and we will submit that, Senator.

Senator WILLIAMS. We would like to have the benefit of your advice or opinions that you and others can give.

Dr. SCHLOSSER. The first page of this statement goes more into detail.

Senator WILLIAMS. We certainly shall examine it.
Senator CLEMENTS. Thank you very much, Doctor.
(Dr. Schlosser's prepared statement is as follows:)

My name is Daniel B. Schlosser. I am a doctor of veterinary medicine and am presently employed by the Indiana State Board of Health as chief of the meat and poultry section, division of food and drugs. I have been employed by the State of Indiana for 9 years-2 years as veterinary inspector and 7 years in my present position.

I am also chairman of the meat and poultry committee of the Association of Food and Drug Officials of the United States and am appearing before this committee as the official representative of that organization. The Association of Food and Drug Officials of the United States is a national organization consisting of local, State and Federal food, drug, and feed regulatory officials charged with the responsibility of administering food, drug, and feed laws within their respective jurisdictions. At the State level, approximately half of these officials operate under the jurisdiction of State health departments and the balance are under the jurisdiction of State departments of agriculture or other State agencies. In some cases, State pharmacy boards administer laws regulating drugs and cosmetics.

The principal responsibility of these State and local agencies is that of protecting the health and welfare of the consuming public within their respective jurisdictions by preventing the manufacture, distribution, or sale of adulterated or mislabeled foods, drugs, and cosmetics. This includes, of course, poultry and poultry products. As a result of the vast increase in the interstate distribution of poultry and poultry products during recent years, it is becoming more and more difficult for these agencies to assure the consumers of these products that the poultry cffered is derived from healthy birds and was slaughtered and processed under acceptable sanitary conditions.

The association feels, therefore, Federal legislation that would require the compulsory inspection of poultry and poultry products as a precedent to their introduction into interstate commerce and that would prohibit the movement in interstate commerce of diseased, unwholesome, or otherwise adulterated poultry would materially assist the members in the enforcement of their respective State and local laws and ordinances.

The members of the association feel that the principal problem in this field is essentially of a public health nature since the consumption of diseased poultry is not only repugnant but may result in the transmission of disease to the consumer. They believe that any Federal legislation seeking to control this problem should be administered by a consumer protective agency. This feeling is embodied in two resolutions formally adopted on May 7, 1956, by the members of the association at its annual meeting in New York. The resolutions read as follows:

(See p. 97 for the resolutions referred to above.)

The Murray bill referred to in the first resolution is S. 3176 and the Aiken bill is S. 3588. Since that time, Senator Murray has introduced S. 3983 which proposes that poultry inspection be administered by the Department of Agriculture as a part of its Meat Inspection Branch by creating within that branch a Poultry Inspection section.

I have been instructed by the Association of Food and Drug Officials of the United States to convey to the members of this committee the association's support of S. 3983 as it meets the criteria which we feel to be important for the protection of the health and welfare of the consuming public in this field. We strongly urge the committee to consider favorably the enactment of Senate bill 3983.

Senator CLEMENTS. The next witness is Mr. Shirley W. Barker, director, poultry department, Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America.

Come around, Mr. Barker.

STATEMENT OF SHIRLEY W. BARKER, DIRECTOR, POULTRY DEPARTMENT, AMALGAMATED MEAT CUTTERS AND BUTCHER WORKMEN OF NORTH AMERICA (AFL-CIO), CHICAGO, ILL.

Mr. BARKER. If the chairman will be patient with me, I will try to summarize my statement and limit it as much as I can-parts of it should be read. I should like to introduce the rest in the record. Senator CLEMENTS. You may proceed.

Mr. BARKER. My name is Shirley W. Barker. I am director of the poultry department of the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America, AFL-CIO, a labor union with 315,000 members and more than 500 locals in the 48 States, Alaska, and Canada.

I am grateful for this opportunity to express the views of our organization on mandatory poultry inspection. This topic of legislation has been of the deepest concern to us for more than 3 years. We consider mandatory inspection of poultry for sanitation and wholesomeness to be one of the greatest health needs of the American people today.

The AMCBW has more than 30,000 members working in the poultry processing industry throughout the Nation. As a result, we have firsthand knowledge of the problems confronting the poultry consumer, the poultry worker and the poultry industry.

That knowledge convinces us that immediate steps must be taken, for the safety of all groups, to stop the flow of filthy, adulterated, and diseased poultry through processing plants to market.

Today, the consumer is endangered by unfit poultry which he may unwittingly buy. The seriousness of this hazard is demonstrated by official data of the United States Public Health Service which holds poultry and poultry products responsible for an average of one-third of the food-poisoning cases reported each year.

The poultry worker in many plants is the prey of rashes, infections, severe illness, and death as a result of insanitary plant conditions and the processing of diseased poultry.

Only 3 months ago, the Portland, Oreg., area was in the throes of a severe psittacosis, or parrot fever, epidemic caused by turkeys. Two persons died and 62 became extremely ill. Many of these men and women were members of the AMCBW who work in poultry plants. The entire poultry industry suffers because of the lack of regulatory standards of sanitation and wholesomeness. The abuses in both product wholesomeness and plant sanitation do serious harm to those plant owners who maintain high standards. All processors are given a bad name and consumer confidence in their product suffers.

The poultry farmer also is harmed by the unhindered flow of diseased and contaminated poultry. As one farm organization testified before a Senate committee, the farmer is often blamed by the consumer for deficiency in a food product even after it has been processed. He

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