U.S. federal meat inspectors are investigating an undercover video shot at the Minnesota slaughterhouse of Hormel Foods' pork supplier, Quality Pork Processors (QPP), which shows pigs being maltreated.

The video was shot by the animal rights group Compassion Over Killing this year. It contains scenes of the graphic maltreatment of pigs by two employees of Quality Pork Processors at their Minnesotta slaughterhouse. Federal meat inspectors have branded the video 'completely unacceptable.'

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The U.S Department of Agriculture (USDA) is reportedly reviewing the video.

The Quality Pork Processors (QPP)  facility where the video was shot is next to a sprawling Hormel plant. The company is a large producer of ham and manufacturer of canned meat, Spam, and a myriad other meat products.

"The actions depicted in the video under review are completely unacceptable, and if we can verify the video's authenticity, we will aggressively investigate the case and take appropriate action," the USDA said in a news statement.

Although USDA rules require meat inspectors to oversee work at plants, the agency said the actions in question were committed in a part of the facility where inspectors are highly unlikely to have been present. U.S meat plants, in order to get a federal seal of inspection, must have USDA staff on site.

The agency added that had the disturbing scenes been observed by their meat inspectors, the agency would have acted right there and then by taking regulatory action against the QPP plant

Quality Pork Processors, though based in Dallas, supplies pork to Hormel's Austin plant.

Nate Jansen, human resource vice president for QPP in Austin, said the horrific video was an isolated case and that the company's priority centers around the humane treatment of animals.

Jansen said the two workers' who were in the video did not observe the rules of the company and that they were given verbal warning.

He said that one worker had cut an abscess from a pig and may have contaminated the meat from the animal. Jansen said that in this particular case, the meat should have been taken to another line of the production where contamination will not occur.

The human resource chief said the workers were taken to task by the supervisor and that they were given verbal warnings. He said that he already knew about the case before the animal rights group came out with the video.

Jansen said another worker was meted a written warning after paddling a pig repeatedly to get it to fall in line. The scenes had been recorded by QPP video and this incident had already been taken up by QPP executives in their conference.

In a statement, Hormel said it didn't agree with the paddling procedure and that it has zero tolerance policy  for the inhumane treatment of animals.

Hormel said it will meet with executives of QPP and the USDA to review the video and take 'corrective action' should the USDA find there was a violation of rules in the handling of the animals.

TagsHormel, Meat, QPP, USDA, Spam, Compassion Over Killing, pigs, federal meat inspectors, federal seal of inspection, undercover video, Quality Pork Processors Video, Hormel Quality Pork Processors, Minnesota slaughterhouse