A directive passed last week by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) focuses on three kinds of dishes: beef, chicken and satellite.

As mandated in an Oct. 10 notification, about 2,000 meat- and poultry-processing plants nationwide will have to make room for satellite dishes for use by federal food-safety inspectors. Noting inspectors “must have reliable, high-speed Internet access to more efficiently and effectively perform their duties,” the FSIS plans to provide it with satellite technology.

“The whole idea was to bring high-speed Internet access to places that didn’t have other delivery options,” FSIS spokesman Steven Cohen said.

“It’s [a concern] inspectors mention all the time,” Cohen said. “On a day-to-day basis there are a lot of applications that require a computer. It had been a matter of [dedicating] funding and planning for it.”

More than 7,600 FSIS inspectors keep track of more than 6,500 meat, poultry and egg producers throughout the United States and its territories.

“Time spent is the difference,” Cohen said. “Some documents that inspectors need to have access to and read makes it very difficult if they only have dial-up [service]. The reliability factor is also an issue.”

While inspectors collect samples on-site for microbiological testing for various pathogens, those samples are actually analyzed at the FSIS headquarters in Washington.

How a satellite connection will most enable inspectors, as detailed in the Oct. 6 Federal Register, is by allowing them “to record a facility’s daily food-safety and humane- handling verification activities”; track product samples; access and retrieve documents including FSIS regulations, directives, notices, and technical references; participate in computer-based on-line training; and obtain updates about inspection issues.

Among sites identified by the FSIS as needing satellite installation, about 700, or more than a third, are located in areas lacking broadband access. The remainder may have Internet access, but broadband would offer lower costs and greater coverage.

As stated in the directive, “for inspectors assigned to establishments in these areas, the best option for obtaining broadband access is through satellite Internet, because it can be accessed regardless of where the user is located.”

Affected processing plants will have to provide space on-premises for the FSIS to install a dish but will not have to pay for the installation or equipment of the FSIS’ satellite technology. Federal regulations already required meat and poultry establishments to provide office space rent-free for government personnel’s official use.

Andrea Brown, director of legislative and regulatory affairs for the American Association of Meat Processors, said “at this point, since it won’t be costing processors any money, we think it’s an effective tool given that some of the plants are in very remote locations… It gives them the capability to communicate, and an ability to access information in a much easier way.”

–J.J. McCoy