The new policy is designed to increase scrutiny of processing plants where the threat of E. coli and other germs is high or where past visits have found unsafe practices. Plants with fewer risks and better food-handling records will be inspected less often.

The Agriculture Department proposes to switch to the new system at about 250 locations, or about 5 percent of the nation's estimated 5,300 processing plants.

"We will do this for a long time in these locations until we've had a chance to evaluate how well it's going, where the bumps in the road might be, what we might need to do differently and how training needs to change,'' said Richard Raymond, the Agriculture Department's top food safety official.

As many as 1,200 plants might be part of the new system by Jan. 1, Raymond told The Associated Press late Wednesday.

Food safety critics weren't pleased. Carol Tucker Foreman, director of food policy for Consumer Federation of America, called the policy reckless and illegal. She said the new policy was the result of the White House's desire to reduce spending and "will almost surely result in more illnesses and more deaths from food poisoning.''

Raymond said the changes were not money-driven and that the goal was to reduce illness from food poisoning.

Other critics say the idea has merit, but they fear the department is rushing a complex new system into place. The new system will start before officials have finished ranking the levels of risk posed by various meat products.

Source: Insurance Journal