UPDATE: Quality Pork Processors is moving ahead with corrective action following a video released by Compassion Over Killing, a nonprofit animal rights group, according to the Associated Press. This includes barring an employee seen paddling pigs in the video from working in the plant's livestock section, plus the reprimanding of two employees seen throwing a blood clot or blood-soaked paper towel, per Nate Jansen, vice president of human resources and quality services at the company.
The company, a Hormel Foods supplier, is also adhering to a letter from the manufacturer sent Thursday. It must retrain workers, increase video monitoring, and more.
"Our Supplier Responsibility Principles are clear as to our expectations of our suppliers, and the behavior depicted in the undercover video is unacceptable," according to Hormel spokesman Rick Williamson.
Dive Brief:
- USDA is launching an investigation of a Quality Pork Processors (QPP) facility, a supplier for Hormel Foods, after video footage captured by nonprofit animal rights group Compassion Over Killing shows potential mistreatment of animals.
- The 97 minutes of hidden camera footage shows graphic treatment of pigs that were not properly stunned before being slaughtered, leaving them writhing in apparent pain, beaten with paddles, or who were so sick they couldn't move.
- There are edited and unedited versions of the footage, and QPP says the edited version makes it seem like there are violations and mistreatment when none actually happened.
Dive Insight:
"Early on, there may very well be contamination present in the process, but we have multiple interventions that ensure that it will not only be visually removed, but completely removed," Nate Jansen, vice president of human resources and quality services at QPP, told The Washington Post. "Had it been allowed to show the entire sequence of these events, all of these hogs were all handled appropriately."
"The actions depicted in the video under review are appalling and completely unacceptable, and if we can verify the video’s authenticity, we will aggressively investigate the case and take appropriate action," said USDA spokesman Adam Tarr, who also noted that the agency can't comment definitively while conducting an investigation.
The incident calls into question the HACCP-Based Inspection Models Project (HIMP), launched by the Food Safety and Inspection Service in the late 1990s. HIMP outfitted five facilities, including this QPP plant, with safety inspection routines that gave the company more responsibility over inspections.
HIMP has caused concerns over the years, as some say the changes enable processors to boost profits while sacrificing animal welfare and food safety.
"They point to a key difference between the traditional inspection system and the pilot program, which places the responsibility for the initial stages of inspection — the sorting out of diseased and contaminated carcasses — on the plant instead of the government. This, they say, allows for companies to speed up the process, hide violations, and, ultimately, compromise the food supply," The Washington Post reported.