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The
Agriculture Department plans to ask lawmakers to approve
$96 million in new fees charged to federally inspected meat
and poultry processing plants, the agency said in 2009 budget
documents.
USDA said it would submit a legislative proposal to permit
its Food Safety and Inspection Service to collect $92 million
through a licensing fee from all inspected establishments.
It also seeks to collect an additional $4 million from plants
requiring additional inspection activities for performance
failures such as retesting, recalls or inspection activities
linked to an outbreak.
USDA's budget boosts the overall FSIS budget by $22 million
to $1.1 billion in the 2009 fiscal year that begins Oct.
1, 2008. That figure includes $952 million in appropriations
and $140 million in existing user fees. The new fees it
seeks would raise $96 million in additional funds beyond
the budget proposal.
Food safety goals
The budget documents also outline the following specific
goals regarding decreased incidents of salmonella, listeria
monocytogenes and E. coli 0157:H7:
- raise
the percentage of plants testing equal to or less than
50 percent of the FSIS performance standards for salmonella
to 85 percent in 2009 from an 80 percent goal in 2008
- decrease
the percentage positive rate for listeria monocytogenes
in ready-to-eat products to 0.28 percent in 2009 from
0.29 percent in 2008
- reduce
the prevalence of E. coli 0157:H7 on ground beef to 0.20
percent in 2009 from 0.24 percent in 2008.
Animal
disease
USDA's budget proposals also include an additional $81 million
over the prior year to enhance the safety and security of
the food supply, including:
- $14 million
more for research related to protecting the food supply
- $20 million
more for research to improve animal vaccines, diagnostic
tests and other efforts
- $47 million
more to enhance pest and disease threat surveillance,
improve animal identification and other efforts.
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