Critics worry that increasing the speed at which animals are slaughtered could make food less safe and create a safer environment for workers.
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Federal limits on how quickly slaughterhouses can slaughter chickens, turkeys and pigs could soon be tightened under a new proposal from the Department of Agriculture. The Trump administration claims the plan will curb rising food costs, but critics say it comes at the expense of safety.
In February, the USDA announced it was submitting proposals that it said would help reduce production costs, eliminate “outdated” regulations, make food processing more efficient and create a more resilient food supply in the United States.
The proposal would increase the cap on the number of animals that can be slaughtered per minute or hour in U.S. facilities and estimate the amount of money saved per pound of meat produced.
But increasing line speeds can make food less safe and create a less safe environment for workers, said Jerrold Munde, a former deputy assistant secretary for food safety at the Department of Agriculture who held senior food safety positions in three presidential administrations. Mande told USA TODAY that the change is unlikely to result in cost savings for supermarkets, predicting that if anything, food manufacturers would save themselves.
“Those who advocate faster speeds are trading that benefit for our health,” said Mande, CEO of Nourish Science, a child nutrition nonprofit.
USA TODAY has reached out to the USDA for comment on the proposed rule changes.
What does USDA’s new proposal do?
USDA submitted two proposals to the Federal Register for a public comment period. One could impact poultry slaughter facilities and the other could impact pork. Both apply to facilities participating in certain types of inspections, the New Poultry Inspection System and the New Pig Slaughter Inspection System, and cover most facilities in the country.
The poultry proposal would increase the allowable kill rate, measured in birds per minute, for young chickens and turkeys. For chicken, the speed increases from 140 bpm to 175 bpm. (According to the International Union of Food and Commercial Workers, 140 bpm is already slightly faster than the tempo of Michael Jackson’s “Beat It,” except that each beat kills a chicken.) For turkeys, this speed would increase to 55 bpm to 60 bpm.
According to the USDA, as of 2024, more than 9.4 billion young chickens will be slaughtered in facilities across the country. Of these, 94% died at facilities subject to the inspection system and increased line speeds. Of the 158 million turkeys slaughtered in 2024, about 79% were raised in facilities subject to the fee increases. According to the Department of Agriculture, some facilities covered by the inspection system have already been exempted from the fee increase.
Another proposal would completely remove maximum line speed limits for pigs and allow facilities to set their own speeds. The previous limit was 1,106 per hour. Approximately 64.4% of the 127.8 million pigs slaughtered in 2024 were raised in facilities subject to the proposed price increases. According to the Department of Agriculture, the six facilities that already had exemptions were slaughtering 1,276 animals per hour.
Why would the USDA want to speed up slaughterhouses?
The USDA said the changes to the federal line speed regulations will eliminate outdated regulations and “provide clarity and consistency” for facilities operating under the patchwork exemption system. The proposal is also designed to help Americans lower their grocery costs.
“My responsibility as Secretary is to ensure that American families have access to affordable, safe, and abundant food,” U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said in a statement. “These updates have removed outdated bottlenecks, lowered production costs, and made our food system more stable.”
Mande said the laws governing line speeds are old, but that doesn’t make them “outdated.” Americans are interested in making the food they eat safer, but Mande said he doesn’t see how increased speed will make that possible.
How does kill speed affect safety?
By law, inspectors from the Food Safety and Inspection Service, part of the Department of Agriculture, are on site at slaughterhouses across the country to inspect every animal that is killed, Mande said. Inspectors look for signs of disease or contamination, a grueling job in facilities that slaughter animals such as chickens, which are killed quickly.
Mande, who oversaw line speeds at the Department of Agriculture, said the chickens were suspended by their feet in an assembly-line-style mechanical system that sped past them as their throats were slit by cutting wheels.
“I can tell you from standing on the line and watching the inspectors work at the speed that the industry demands, the work goes by so quickly. You don’t really get a chance to work,” he said.
But the USDA said the proposed line speed increases “maintain full federal oversight of all facilities and reaffirm inspectors’ authority to slow or halt operations whenever inspections cannot be conducted effectively.”
Experts and advocates have also raised concerns about increased harm to workers and mistreatment of animals before slaughter.
“Increasing the speed of slaughter lines is nothing short of a recipe for cruelty and chaos. Increasing speeds risks horrific cruelty to animals and increases the risk of debilitating injuries to workers, all while compromising food safety,” the organization Humane World for Animals said in a statement.
Mr Mande said that as well as making it more difficult for inspectors to spot problems before meat is purchased in supermarkets, the faster speed of slaughter meant more animal carcasses had to be processed to maintain production. But Mande said that rather than adding more workers to perform tasks such as butchering animals, companies would likely ask existing workers to do their jobs faster. That can increase the chance of injury or the introduction of harmful bacteria, he said.
“Consumers will be surprised if they see cheaper food. This is not an industry effort to sell cheaper chicken or pork, but to increase profits,” Mande said.
New rules likely to face challenges
Debbie Berkowitz, a researcher at Georgetown University who specializes in worker safety and health, said the new rules are not final and won’t go into effect until the administration considers public input. Berkowitz expects supporters will challenge the proposal, which has been successful so far.
In 2018, during President Trump’s first term, the USDA rejected a petition by the National Poultry Council to eliminate line speed limits at some slaughterhouses after receiving more than 100,000 public comments, NPR reported. After the Trump administration lifted line speed limits at hog plants in 2019, a federal court later ruled that the USDA acted illegally by failing to consider the impact on worker safety, said Berkowitz, who has advocated for improved safety conditions for food workers in the country for more than 40 years.
In response to the ruling, the Biden administration studied the safety implications of line speeds for workers, Berkowitz said. The study found that 81% of poultry plant workers were at increased risk for musculoskeletal disorders and recommended that facilities with plans to increase the speed of their evisceration lines reduce that risk by increasing staffing.
But Berkowitz said President Trump’s USDA has not considered these findings and the latest proposals “require nothing from companies to reduce the harm these proposals would cause.” Berkowitz said if the anticipated challenges fail, the implications could be dire.
“It’s going to hurt workers and ultimately it’s going to hurt communities,” Berkowitz said.
