Meat + Poultry - March 2006 - 83

The Insider
Pushing poultry power
At his company's
annual franchisee
meeting this past
month, Chick-filA, Inc. president
Dan Cathy introduced franchisees
to a method of fueling their vehicles using the same
oil used to cook their poultry products.
Cathy showed off a Ford pickup equipped to run
on used Chick-fil-A peanut oil and emblazoned with
a sign reading: "Addicted to chicken, not Mid-East
oil." Cathy was introduced to the technology last
year by one of his franchisees. Company officials say
they are investigating this and other forms of alternative fuel sources.
The diesel truck was modified by Greasecar Vegetable Fuel Systems, a Florence, Mass.-based company
selling kits that convert raw vegetable oil into usable
fuel. If the technology were to become mainstream,
we wonder if regulators would require drivers to put
allergen labels on their bumpers.

F.S.I.S. refocuses efforts
in poultry plants
During a presentation at this year's International Poultry Expo titled, "The
Salmonella Challenge: The F.S.I.S Perspective," Dr. Daniel Engeljohn, who
works in the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture's
policy office, spelled out what he sees as
Engeljohn
"areas of concern."
Engeljohn says the agency has found there is too little
food safety focus on sanitary dressing practices and what is
coming in the door, while there is too much focus on zero
tolerance for fecal contamination and on the plants chillers. He advises a more global approach and pointed out the
opportunities to address food safety shouldn't be limited to
certain areas.
"Ever since the inception of HACCP, there is no focus
at the scalder and after the scalder, during rehanging,"
he says. "If you're not taking care of food safety issues
before the (back ) door and in the plant, you can't fix it all
with chilling."

Brought to you by
MEAT&POULTRY Magazine
Cartoon by Bob Bliss

Prime Ribbing

Over herd
"Their perception should
be my perception."
- Dr. Kenneth Petersen, F.S.I.S. deputy assistant
administrator, when asked about inspectors' varying
interpretations of HACCP plan verifications, during
N.M.A.'s 60th Annual Convention

Nothing to bark at

Even with F.D.A. approval, meat companies might
have wished they had taken a more covert approach
to enhancing MAP.
90

MEAT&POULTRY

March 2006

www.MEATPOULTRY.com

During the American Meat Institute's Animal Handling Conference
held this past month, the feasibility of using cattle dogs to herd and
move animals at slaughtering plants
was discussed. Taylor Packing (a
subsidiary of Excel Corp.) reportedly experimented with using cattle
dogs to move bovines in the past,
Grandin
but recently pulled the plug on the
practice. Animal welfare expert and M&P contributing editor Dr. Temple Grandin chimed in saying, "A
dog at the plant isn't a good idea. For one thing they
bite. That's how they move cows. Plus, they poop and
that is a food safety problem."
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Meat + Poultry - March 2006

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