Food and Water Watch has petitioned the U.S. Department of Agriculture to revoke equivalency status for four meat inspection programs in Canada, Australia and New Zealand because they have replaced government meat inspectors with company employees. The Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) “has based its equivalency determinations for these inspection systems for meat imports on the HACCP-based Inspection Models Project (HIMP) in hog slaughter,” read the organization’s letter, adding, “That pilot project has been limited to only five hog slaughter facilities in the United States and has never been evaluated by FSIS as to its effectiveness.” The petition details Food and Water Watch’s concerns about the Canadian High Line Speed Inspection System, the Canadian HACCP-based Slaughter Inspection Program for Swine, the Australian Export Meat Inspection System, and the Alternate New Zealand Meat Inspection Procedure. “FSIS has placed the health and welfare of U.S. consumers in jeopardy by permitting the importation of these products that have received deficient inspection by the exporting countries,” wrote Wenonah Hauter, the group’s executive director, in the letter to FSIS.