America's continuing growth depends on the health of her people.
A plentiful supply of nutritious, wholesome food will keep our nation strong.
Abundant protein-rich meat contributes to the well-being and
strength of our people and our country.
Meat is a favorite with almost everyone
everywhere.
Nowadays, more and more of the meat you buy comes to you fully prepared, ready to
eat.
Easy to serve prepared meats are an accepted part of our everyday life.
No more grinding, mixing, slicing, or even cooking at home unless you want to.
This time-consuming work is done for you.
Prepared meats, inspected and passed by the United States Department of
Agriculture, are clean, safe, wholesome, and truthfully labeled.
How can you be sure?
Learn for yourself what it takes to earn the right to display the USDA
mark of wholesomeness.
The story behind this mark of wholesomeness begins with the millions of animals
moving from America's farms and ranches through federally inspected
slaughtering plants each year.
They represent more than 80% of the commercial meats slaughtered in this country.
Animals coming under federal inspection are carefully examined by thoroughly
trained USDA meat inspectors.
Livestock unfit for human consumption is slaughtered separately and converted to
fertilizer or other non-food uses.
What's more, all government-inspected plants and equipment
must meet federal requirements.
Each day before operations may begin, everything must be clean and sanitary.
The standards are high for your protection.
Nothing is left to chance.
Every machine part that comes in direct contact with the food you eat must be
designed for easy cleaning, and cleanliness is strictly enforced.
From the moment a carcass starts on its way along the line, federal meat
inspectors stand guard to protect you, the consumer.
All meat that passes inspection is stamped with a round purple
mark of wholesomeness.
The law requires this mark for all meat shipped across state
lines or in foreign commerce.
Any questionable carcass is set aside.
If not acceptable as human food, it is condemned.
Only clean, safe, and wholesome meat goes into the cooler for further processing.
Every year, from one end of the country to the other, long lines of beef, veal,
lamb, mutton, and pork go into the prepared and processed meats that are
inspected and passed by the United States Department of Agriculture.
About 18 billion pounds a year, or two-thirds of all the processed meats consumed
in this country, are prepared under federal inspection.
Whether this inspection is made in Portland, Omaha, Dallas, or your
hometown, it is the same.
The inspector protects you at a point where you cannot do it yourself.
For instance, he sees that the processor limits the amount of the less expensive
ingredients used in a product.
When meat is used in combination with other approved ingredients, regulations
specify the minimum amount of meat that must be used in the product.
Take Frank Footers.
More than seven billion Franks and Wieners each year earn
the U.S. mark of wholesomeness.
You identify a Frank by its shape and color.
The meat inspector sees more than that.
He sees that it's made from wholesome meat with approved
amounts of other ingredients.
In fact, under federal meat inspection, all products containing meat, including
soups, gravies, and stews, must contain wholesome ingredients only of the kind
and amount appropriate for that product.
Federal meat inspectors in the plant make final judgment
on acceptability of products.
They make judgments every day, many times a day.
They rely on their training, experience, and highly developed senses
of sight, smell, and touch.
They inspect thousands of different meat products for your individual selection.
There's bologna, bacon, patties, scrapple, pork loaf,
salami, liverwurst, head cheese, liver pudding, luncheon
meat, and other favorites.
Most of the meat products they see are acceptable, prepared and packaged to
suit the most discriminating taste.
Even so, the inspector is ever watchful.
Where he has a question, he usually makes an on-the-spot judgment.
When he isn't able to do so, he may call on the meat inspection laboratories
for detailed analyses.
For this, he takes a sample like this one in the plant.
He packs it with identification,
adds dry ice, and sends it along to the nearest meat inspection laboratory.
In the lab, the skills and techniques of the scientists will
answer the inspector's questions.
This bacteriologist tests for evidence of antibiotics or other preservatives,
which are not permitted in federally inspected products.
A part of the sample is measured,
placed in the blender, and a phosphate buffer added.
The resulting mixture is poured into Petri dishes.
Paper disks are dipped into this mixture, and then placed on plates already
treated with assay organisms.
After a period of incubation, disks from two
different meat samples give their answers.
Antibiotics are not permitted because they could conceal some kinds of
deterioration while preserving the normal meat color.
Scientists in the laboratories are there to help the inspector in the plant
resolve the questions he faces.
They provide one more resource on which he can draw in making a
final judgment of acceptability.
And until such final judgment is made, the product is retained.
Then it is either released for food or rejected and converted
to uses other than food.
These laboratories employ chemists, microbiologists,
bacteriologists, histopathologists.
They analyze materials sent to them by the meat inspectors in the plants.
What's more, these laboratories employ not only the familiar tools of the
scientific profession, but more and more use new highly sensitive electronic
devices for complex tests and precise answers.
Let's take a look at some of these people seeking answers
to the questions of inspectors.
For instance, they may be asked to determine the
wholesomeness of spices or other non-meat substances, or to check for the
presence of foreign materials and molds.
They may be asked to measure the protein content of a product.
It's a simple test for the chemist and an important
protection for you, the consumer.
A scientist may be called on to determine the species from
which a sample of meat is derived.
Is it beef?
Mutton.
This record may confirm the inspector's suspicion that pork is included in a
product labeled all beef.
Whatever the finding, it goes to the inspector who decides
how to classify the product.
He controls the labeling of all federally inspected products to assure
accurate information for the consumer.
The department also gives close attention to imported
as well as domestic products.
This technician prepares a foreign sample to be tested for possible
residues left by pesticides.
Since chemicals are absorbed into the meat fat, the first
step is to draw off the fat.
The chemist heats a sample in an oven and pours the fat into a flask.
To this, he adds solvents and extracts chemicals from the fat.
He then applies the extract to chromatic paper.
This is tedious, time-consuming work, but it pays
dividends in consumer protection.
The chemist now exposes
the paper to ultraviolet light.
This reveals the presence of any pesticide.
Each one produces its own characteristic pattern in definite positions.
When chemicals are shown to be present, another machine, a gas chromatograph, can
be used to determine how much.
This device is so sensitive that minute traces, even one part in a
million, can be recorded.
Such highly sensitive and precise laboratory methods increase the meat
inspector's ability to assure thorough protection for your meat supply.
Here is a safeguard we hope we'll never have to use.
Meat inspectors throughout the country are being trained and equipped to check
for possible residues of radioactive fallout in case of an
accident or national emergency.
And to support them, laboratory personnel are able to run tests on meat samples.
Here's the way it's done.
This capsule of ash represents what was once a five-pound stake.
An anti-coincidence scaler, or a beta counter, can measure any significant amount
of radioactivity in the ash.
This is the kind of intensive laboratory testing that supports the meat inspector
and affords you unseen protection.
The inspector also makes sure you get what you pay for.
USDA inspection requires that food products containing meat
have to be labeled properly.
These labels accurately describe the contents.
This provision in the law safeguards your interests.
It helps protect you from misinformation or deception.
You can read for yourself what goes into the prepared meats you buy.
The meat inspector makes sure that the label lists all ingredients and identifies
the specific kind of meat or meats used in a product.
You can be sure the processor has used at least the minimum amount of meat
specified for this product.
For instance, according to federal regulations, chili con carne with beans must
contain at least 25 percent beef based on fresh weight.
Pork with barbecue sauce must have at least 50 percent cooked pork.
Rest assured that the proper percentage is in the finished product because
federal meat inspectors see that the official requirements are met.
These requirements are set forth in the regulations governing the meat inspection
of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Great care has been taken in establishing these rules.
Equally great care is taken to maintain them.
They are revised as necessary to keep up with changing times and new products.
These regulations have evolved from the records of more than 50 years
experience in meat inspection.
Inspection initiated and maintained to assure a
wholesome product properly labeled.
Specialty dishes, in addition to meeting all other requirements, must also have a
reasonable resemblance to the form and taste historically established for them.
Even the picture on a label must be accurate. It cannot show more
meat than the package contains.
Special claims must be right too. To examine label claims, meat inspections own
home economists test products under conditions similar to those in your own home.
Take this bacon. The processor claims it will not char.
It has been cured with a USDA approved synthetic sweetener.
Let's watch kitchen testing at work.
Yes, the claim proves to be accurate. The anti-charring statement will be
allowed to appear on the label.
At the U.S. Department of Agriculture, specialists carefully screen each proposed
label before it may be used legally.
The processor can mark it with confidence, and you, the consumer, may be certain
that the meat product is clean, safe, wholesome, and truthfully labeled when it
receives the stamp of approval.
Prepared meats are American favorites. Favorites for
convenience, favorites for nutrition,
and favorites for flavor.
Prepared meats are easy to serve and good to eat. They are enjoyed by almost
everyone, everywhere, every day.
So whenever you're out shopping for yourself or the whole family, meat products
that have been approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, just look
for the mark of wholesomeness.
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