The Cost of Food Safety Technologies in the Meat and Poultry Industries.

percentile is not as dramatic. Thus, it does not appear that the results from the smaller sample
are biased.

The pattern for technology is similar to performance of sanitation and process control
tasks in meat slaughter and meat processing. There is a modest increase in costs over the 95^th to
25^th percentile in cattle slaughter and nearly no change in costs for meat processing. Poultry
slaughter and processing has a steep rise in costs over the 95^th to 25^th percentiles, rising by more
than about two-thirds. Over the 25^th to 5^th percentile, however, costs drop dramatically. This
drop in costs is likely due to the nature of these plants’ business. Poultry plants requiring little
advanced food safety technology typically produce specialty products for niche markets that
require minimal processing, lowering production costs.

Results for the technology index suggest that food safety technology reduces costs for
meat slaughter, meat processing, and all but the very smallest poultry slaughter plants. Food
safety technology can be cost-reducing if an automated technology replaces a manual one or
production yields increase. Cost trends for poultry slaughter plants with below average
technology levels may be due to differences in plant technology - large poultry plants are highly
automated while small ones are not. See Antle (2000) for a discussion. The smaller cost
changes for meat processing relative to meat slaughter might be due to fewer technology options
being available to processing plants relative to slaughter plants.

CONCLUSION

There has been considerable concern that a greater emphasis on the provision of food safety,
particularly through regulation, would raise manufacturing costs. Antle (2000), for example,

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