As someone who used to work in the compliance industry, I can't tell you what a threat this is to the national food supply -- and this kind of back-door deregulation is something that comes up in every single Republican administration. George W. Bush did the same favor for Big Pharma. Sure, why wouldn't you allow an industry to police itself? We've seen how well that works (Boeing 737s are a recent example):
"This is the biggest change in the way pork is inspected in more than 50 years," Morgan Radford said.
"We spoke to several federal inspectors speaking out for the first time and they say the pork you eat actually may not be as safe as you think. It is all about an inspection process that they say is too fast and it has less central oversight."
"That is what is potentially in your pork according to some of America's federal inspectors, speaking out for the first time in an NBC exclusive. Jill Mauer and Anthony Vallone are speaking out.
"They say the meat you eat may soon be less safe than you think, thanks to a change in rules for pork inspection now set to roll out nationwide under the Trump administration."
"The consumer is being duped. They believe it is being federally inspected and there is no one there to even watch or do anything about anything."
"Both inspectors work at a pork plant in the Midwest, one of the first to adopt the pilot program," Radford said.
"They say the changes have been dramatic. In traditional plants, they check the animals for defects or signs of disease. In the new system it goes down to two or three federal inspectors, now the plant's employees will be checking and sorting with no federal training required."
"There is not enough time to react to situations that arise. You have 2.6 seconds per carcass."
"To inspect the hog?"
"Yes."
"There is no federal cap on line speeds, no set limit on how fast the meat can go by."
"As long as they feel like they can get away with it, they will."
"The USDA declined to do an on-camera interview for this story, but said via email, said that inspectors have the authority to slow and stop the line to ensure food safety and inspection are achieved. They will conduct 100% carcass by carcass inspections."
"When you open your package of meat, what you're going to get for pathogens are a mystery."
And just to make it even scarier, the Trump administration plans to roll out the same program for the beef industry! On the bright side, Trump does eat a lot of fast-food burgers...
