Meat + Poultry - September 2006 - 80

HACCP Timeline:

HACCP turns 10
Industry still has many
concerns regarding 'megareg'
By Bernie Shire
meatpoultry@sosland.com

n July 25, 1996, U.S. Dept.
of Agriculture's Food Safety
and Inspection Service published a 185page regulation
many observers called "the
biggest change
in meat regulations" since the
Federal Meat Inspection Act began a cohesive
program of meat
inspection 90
years earlier.
Coi ned the
"megareg" because of its great
length, the Pathogen Reduction/Hazard
Analysis Critical Control Point regulation - or HACCP for short - turned
meat and poultry inspection upside
down with ramifications that are still
being felt throughout the slaughter and
processing industries today. The idea
behind the new inspection regulation
was to reduce pathogens on meat and
poultry products, reduce foodborne illness from consuming meat and poultry,
and modernize the inspection system.
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MEAT&POULTRY

September 2006

Truth be told, 10 years after the adoption of this huge change to the inspection system, the details are in many
ways still being worked out.
While most of
the meat and
p ou lt r y pro cessing indust r y wanted a
change to the inspection system,
with large plants
and trade associations even
asking for mandatory HACCP
- what the industry got from
U.S.D.A. was far from what it wanted.

July 25, 1996 - U.S.D.A. publishes
the Pathogen Reduction/Hazard
Analysis Critical Control Point
regulation.
January 27, 1997 - Establishments
must develop and carry out
sanitation standard operating
procedures (S.S.O.P.s).
January 27, 1997 - Slaughter
establishments must carry out
microbial testing for generic E. coli
to verify the adequacy of a plant's
process controls in order to prevent
and remove fecal contamination.
January 26, 1998 - Large plants,
with 500 or more employees, must
implement HACCP programs.
January 25, 1999 - Small plants,
with 10 or more employees but fewer
than 500 employees, must implement
HACCP programs.
January 25, 2000 - Very small
plants, with fewer than 10 employees
or annual sales of less than $2.5
million, must implement HACCP plans.
Slaughter plants and plants that
produce raw ground products
are required to meet pathogen
reduction performance standards
for Salmonella, beginning at the
same time as the above HACCP
implementation dates.

HACCP's beginnings
While many people believe HACCP
became the main thrust of meat inspection as a result of an E. coli O157:
H7 outbreak in hamburger sold in Jack
in the Box restaurants in Washington
and other Western states 13 years ago,
it is not really as simple as that. In
1993, more than 600 people were sickened and four children died, following

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June 4, 2003 - U.S.D.A. releases
regulation requiring plants to reduce
Listeria in ready-to-eat meat and
poultry products.
Since then, some of the regulations
and directives promulgated by F.S.I.S.
are based on the HACCP rule.

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Meat + Poultry - September 2006

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