Tyson Foods workers to replace some federal inspectors at U.S. beef plant

Tyson Foods TSN.N said on Tuesday it plans in January to have company employees take on duties from more than a dozen federal inspectors at a large Kansas beef plant, after getting a U.S. government waiver. Tyson said the change would improve food safety and efficiency as part of a process to modernize inspections, although activists worried it could result in less oversight. The country’s highest-selling meat supplier asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in March 2019 for a waiver from inspection requirements at its plant in Holcomb, Kansas. Other companies have made similar changes at chicken and pork plants. The USDA granted the waiver in March 2020, allowing Tyson workers instead of government inspectors to check cattle carcasses for defects or disease before the animals are butchered, company executives said. The USDA said in a statement to Reuters that it will continue to inspect all carcasses and parts, while shifting “quality assurance and trimming tasks” to Tyson...MORE