If you are a meat processor, and you believe your inspector has given you an “NR” or noncompliance record that is unwarranted or an error, you have the right to appeal the inspector’s decision. Many processors are hesitant to appeal, for fear of damaging their relationship with their FSIS inspector . However, FSIS emphasizes that […]
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Five Financial Assistance Programs that Work Many financial assistance programs at the state and federal levels will not work for small meat processors. If we had a dollar for every program out there that we were told could help small meat processors, well… we could buy a lot of bratwurst. While assistance programs do change
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Adapted from Volume 3, Number 11 of Small Plant News As a small plant operator, you probably already know that FSIS issues directives to provide official communications and instruction to Agency personnel in carrying out their functions. These directives are usually issued for an indefinite duration and are identified by a series number and title.
Finding Directives Read More »
A Niche Meat Processor Assistance Network webinar, presented in collaboration with USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service. Date: February 4, 2014 Duration: 1 hour The Cooperative Interstate Shipment Program, authorized by the 2008 Farm Bill and launched by USDA-FSIS in 2012, allows state-inspected meats from qualifying plants to be shipped across state lines. The goal of the program
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What’s on this page? A basic understanding of microbiology can really help as you develop food safety and HACCP plans. This page has a few resources to get you started as well as some suggested anti-microbial interventions for small plants. What is microbiology? How do I get started? Learn Microbiology Basics NMPAN Webinars What are the
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<< Back USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, as part of its assistance and outreach to small and very small plants, offers several resources for MSU operators, to help with regulatory compliance. Considerations Unique to Mobile Red Meat Slaughter Building and operating a USDA-inspected mobile slaughter unit can require creative approaches to regulatory compliance,
How To Use the USDA FSIS Website This page overviews resources available on the USDA-FSIS Small & Very Small Plants Web Page. In addition to those explained here, other resources exist, such as Resources to assist with compliance askFSIS Export/import information Indexes for FSIS Directives, Notices and Guidelines. This is an incredibly helpful tool for
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What’s an FSA? A Food Safety Assessment (FSA), done randomly or in response to a problem, is an audit done by FSIS at federally inspected plants to assure that food safety procedures are effective. According to FSIS, a central goal of the FSA process is to “reduce recalls and enforcement actions by providing valuable
Food Safety Assessments: what they are & how to prepare Read More »
FSIS Database of Federally Inspected Plants USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service provides a list, in pdf, of federally inspected processing establishments: FSIS Meat, Poultry, and Egg Product Inspection Directory. If you have a current copy of Adobe Acrobat, you can search pdfs for words. So if you are looking for a plant in
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Per the requirements of Chapter 9 Code of Federal Regulations, Section 317 and Section 381 subpart N, all meat and poultry products must have labels with up to 8 required features. Only the first 3 label features listed below will be required on all products. All products with more than 1 ingredient must have an
Step 5: Obtain Approved Labels and/or Brands Read More »
