Regulatory Watch

FSIS issues updated instructions for verifying food safety systems

Instructions help ensure compliance with 9 CFR 310.22

The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service has issued updated instructions on how to verify and document that establishments meet requirements for using food safety systems.

The directive is designed to ensure proper verification and documentation of establishments meeting 9 CFR 310.22 requirements for food safety systems, including HACCP, sanitation SOP verification and hazard analysis, as well as dedicated specified risk material (SRM) control verification tasks from FSIS Notice 26-16.

Inspection program personnel will continue verifying that all cattle slaughter and processing establishments that handle SRMs have written procedures for the removal, segregation and disposition of SRMs.

Among other SRMs identified in the directive are tonsils and distal small intestines in cattle of all ages, including veal. The inspection program personnel will perform hands-on product and records-based verification of establishments’ SRM control programs.

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Casey Laughman is the former Editor in Chief of Food Engineering magazine. He has almost two decades’ experience as a writer and editor for mainstream and trade publications. He spent several years as a writer and editor for two news services before becoming the editor of a legal publication and managing editor of a trade magazine that covered the commercial facilities market.