WASHINGTON (AP) - The Obama administration is overhauling poultry plant inspections for the first time in more than 50 years,
It’s hoped to reduce the number of food borne illness each year by at least 5,000.
Final rules would cut the number of government poultry inspectors.
But those who remain will focus more on food safety than on quality, requiring them to pull more birds off the line for closer inspections and encouraging more testing for pathogens.
More inspectors would check the facilities to make sure they are clean.
These changes would be voluntary, but many of the country's largest poultry companies are expected to opt in.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the changes take into account current science, updating the inspection system from 1950s thinking that visual defects meant safety problems.
