Meat + Poultry - February 2004 - 52

F.S.I.S. issues additional B.S.E. safeguards
One week after Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman announced
her intentions to further enhance U.S. safeguards against bovine
spongiform encephalopathy, the Food Safety and Inspection Service issued four new rules. On Dec. 30, 2003, Secretary Veneman announced a number of policies that
will further strengthen protections against
B.S.E., including the immediate banning
of non-ambulatory animals from the human food supply (see "The front page," Jan.
2003, Page 3). Rules to address the remaining issues were published in the Federal Register in early January.
These policies involve additional process
controls for establishments using advanced
meat recovery systems; holding meat from cattle that have been tested for B.S.E. until the test results are received and they are negative;
removal of additional specified risk materials; and prohibiting air-injection stunning of cattle.
With the filing of the interim final rule, F.S.I.S. is declaring that
skull, brain, trigeminal ganglia, eyes, vertebral column, spinal cord
and dorsal root ganglia of cattle 30 months of age or older and the
small intestine of all cattle are S.R.M.s, thus prohibiting their use in

the human food supply.
The agency is requiring federally inspected plants that slaughter
cattle to remove, segregate and dispose of S.R.M.s so they cannot enter the food chain. To facilitate the enforcement of this rule,
F.S.I.S. has developed procedures for verifying the approximate age of cattle slaughtered in federally inspected plants. State inspected plants must have equivalent procedures in place.
This interim final rule expands the prohibition to include D.R.G., clusters of nerve
cells connected to the spinal cord along the
vertebral column, in addition to spinal cord
tissue. Because the vertebral column and
skull in cattle 30 months and older will be considered inedible, they
cannot be used for A.M.R.
To ensure that portions of the brain are not dislocated into the tissues of the carcass as a consequence of stunning cattle during the
slaughter process, F.S.I.S. also issued an interim final rule to ban the
practice of air-injection stunning.
Comments on all of the interim final rules will be accepted for 90
days after the publication in the Federal Register.

F.S.I.S. gets tough on overtime
deadbeats

President Bush introduces
immigration reform initiative

Companies that have delinquent accounts with F.S.I.S. must pay
their balances before the agency will provide them with additional
reimbursable overtime and holiday inspections, according to a notice
published by the agency this past month.
After the new policy takes effect, F.S.I.S. will send notices to
companies that have outstanding balances for reimbursable overtime that are more than 30
days overdue. If F.S.I.S. does
not receive full payment of the
amount indicated in that notice within 30 days, a second
notice will be sent with a certified letter. If payment in full is still
not received within 14 days, F.S.I.S. will not provide any additional
reimbursable overtime or holiday inspections until the unsettled
debt is paid.
The new policy will not affect the provision of regular meat and
poultry inspections for delinquent establishments and individuals.
Only reimbursable overtime and holiday inspections will be refused
to delinquent establishments.
If the debt remains unresolved for 180 days, despite F.S.I.S.' notification attempts, the account may be transferred to the U.S. Dept.
of Treasury, which may pursue additional actions to collect the unpaid amount.

President Bush recently outlined a plan to reform U.S. immigration
laws, including creation of a temporary worker program for undocumented residents currently working in the U.S.
"The system is not working," President Bush said in early January.
"Our nation needs an immigration system that serves the American
economy, and reflects the American dream."
Components of the president's proposal include:
* A three-year temporary worker program for undocumented
individuals currently employed in the U.S. Participants would
pay a one-time fee to enter the program and would be
eligible for renewal.
* Employers would need to search for American workers prior to
hiring from the temporary program.
* Temporary workers would get credits and tax deferred savings
that would be returned upon immigrants returning to their
home country.
* Temporary workers would be allowed to apply for U.S. citizenship through the normal process, but not in front of immigrants
currently legally residing in the U.S.
* Re-evaluation of the standards of knowledge required in
the current citizenship test.
The proposal would provide labor law protection for all immigrant
workers in the U.S. President Bush's plan would also increase the annual number of green cards issued, which can lead to citizenship.

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FEBRUARY 2004

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Meat + Poultry - February 2004

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