The US Department of Agriculture’s secretary for food safety Dr Richard Raymond has announced a timetable for the introduction of a more robust risk-based assessment process in meat and poultry processing plants. The new procedure will gradually come into effect, beginning in April.
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In order to better protect the public, the Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) has said that it will consider the relative risk of what each plant produces and how each plant is controlling that risk, and accordingly allocate inspection resources to high risk facilities
While the FSIS will continue its daily visits, the level of inspection will be determined by a number of factors, including public health related inspection noncompliances and FSIS microbiological testing results.
“To continue to prevent foodborne illness, we have to improve our prevention capabilities, not just respond quickly after an outbreak occurs,” Raymond said. “Our inspectors visit every one of these plants every day and that won’t change. What will change is we will no longer be treating every plant like every other plant in terms of its adverse public health potential and we will start using the information and the inspection expertise we already have in ways that better protect consumers.”
Responding to the announcement, Grocery Manufacturers/Food Products Association (GMA/FPA) president and CEO Cal Dooley said: “We view… plans for moving ahead with risk-based inspection of meat and poultry processing plants as a step forward to creating a more effective and efficient inspection system. GMA/FPA is a strong supporter of risk-based inspection.”
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