Meat&Poultry - July 2011 - 40

Food Safety
there is no doubt plants will have to control their products while being sampled by FSIS or state-inspection agencies, or even when their own testing takes place. According to an FSIS spokesman, after receiving and analyzing the comments, the agency will respond, make any appropriate changes to the policy and procedures, and announce the effective date of the new policy in a subsequent Federal Register notice. The required test-and-hold procedure comes about as a result of a petition submitted in 2008 by the American Meat Institute to Richard Raymond, undersecretary for food safety at the time. The trade association asked Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack again a year later. Three years before the petition was fi rst submitted, AMI, the American Association of Meat Processors, which represents mostly small and very small meat and poultry processors, and six other national trade groups published Industry Best Practices for Holding Tested Products, which provided guidance for plants to hold raw and ready-to-eat products until test results about the safety of the products are received. Copies of ‘Best Practices’, printed by AMI, were sent to every federally inspected plant in the US. AAMP announced its availability to its members, including federally and state-inspected plants, custom and retail-exempt establishments, and distributed it at affi liate meetings. Other participating trade associations distributed it to their own members.

Countdown to test-and-hold
Mandatory compliance is months away as industry weighs in on FSIS notice
BY BERNARD SHIRE
meatpoultry@sosland.com

B

y the end of this year, or at the latest, early next year, USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) and state inspection agencies will be

Although FSIS has recommended all plants hold products while they are being tested, it never mandated it until now.”
requiring all federally and state inspected meat and poultry plants in the United States to hold product when it is being tested for pathogens. During the spring, FSIS published

a notice, along with a request for comments in the Federal Register, saying it would not determine whether meat and poultry products are adulterated and are able to be shipped in commerce until all test results have been received. The government inspection agency says it is accepting comments on this notice setting this major change of policy for 90 days, until July 11. With possible changes to be made to the notice due to comments submitted by industry, consumer groups and other interested parties, it is highly unlikely mandatory “testand-hold” will go into effect until late in 2011 or early in 2012. But

Mandatory test-and-hold
Although FSIS has recommended all plants hold products while they are being tested, it never mandated it until now. That is because for years, it strongly urged plants to take this action, and because national and state trade associations have urged their members to do this. But once it became apparent that meat and poultry product recalls

40 • Meat&Poultry • July 2011 • www.MeatPoultry.com
http://www.MeatPoultry.com
Meat&Poultry - July 2011

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Meat&Poultry - July 2011
