ABSTRACT

In the United States, the federal government has total control over the safety of all land muscle foods, i.e., beef, pork, chicken, and many others. This approach is similar to that of major Western countries. The federal agency is called Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS). FSIS is one arm of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). FSIS has the major responsibility of assuring that nation’s meat supply and other land muscle foods are save for the public to consume. However, apart from safety, the FSIS has another responsibility, assuring that economic fraud is kept to a minimum. Because meat and many land muscle foods are high-priced items, many dishonest food operations cannot resist the temptation to cheat the consumers when the opportunities arise. Fortunately, most operators are honest businessmen. Still the FSIS has spent an enormous amount of effort to prevent economic fraud.