Washington — The U.S. Department of Agriculture is requesting comment on proposed rules that would remove maximum line speeds at eligible pork-processing facilities and permanently raise some poultry-processing line speed limits.
Published on Feb. 19, the proposals have met opposition from worker safety advocates.
Under the proposed pork-processing rule, USDA would allow establishments operating under the agency’s New Swine Inspection System to remove the current maximum line speed of 1,106 hogs an hour. Those facilities would set operating speeds “based on their ability to maintain process control and comply with all food safety requirements,” USDA’s Food Safety Inspection Service says.
USDA’s poultry-processing proposal would allow facilities operating under its New Poultry Inspection System to permanently run at line speeds of up to 175 birds per minute for chickens and 60 bpm for turkeys. The proposed rule also would remove requirements for establishments to submit annual worker safety data to FSIS.
The facility inspector in charge would have to issue a reduction in line speed “whenever carcass-by-carcass inspection cannot be adequately performed or when establishments lose process control,” per FSIS.
Last March, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced that USDA would initiate rulemaking to “formalize” faster line speeds initially allowed at certain facilities under a trial period. The agency also said it would no longer require plant operators to submit worker safety data, calling it “redundant.”
USDA cites two separate studies, completed in January 2025 by FSIS, that examined the effects of increased line speeds on poultry- and pork-processing worker safety. FSIS concluded that increased line speeds in processing facilities, while not the “leading factor in worker musculoskeletal risk,” combine with other factors to contribute to employees’ overall risk.
The National Pork Producers Council and National Chicken Council, which have pushed for unrestricted line speeds, applaud the proposals. In a press release, NPPC President Duane Stateler thanked Rollins for “taking steps to unleash the potential to process pork more efficiently while also protecting food and worker safety.”
Conversely, Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, called the proposals a “dangerous step” that prioritizes profits over worker safety.
“By proposing to permanently increase line speeds and remove critical worker safety oversight, the USDA is knowingly inviting a surge in workplace injuries and fatalities in an industry that is already among the most hazardous in the country,” Appelbaum said in a separate release. “Increasing line speeds in poultry and pork plants is a recipe for disaster.
“We know from decades of experience that faster line speeds lead directly to more repetitive motion injuries, more amputations and more life-altering accidents. Forcing workers to keep pace with ever-accelerating machinery doesn’t just endanger the people on the line, it also compromises the safety of the food on our tables – no question.”
Meanwhile, Mark Lauritsen, vice president of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, said in another release that the proposals “ignore” the FSIS studies and “seemingly any consideration for worker safety.”
Comments on both proposed rules are due April 20.
