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March 31, 2008 |
| Safety Program Offered to Small Processing Plants |
| Food Safety Inspection Services provides free training |
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Small and "very small" meat, poultry, and egg processing plants in the United States can-at no cost-get help in ensuring that their plants are operating as safely as possible through a new outreach program offered by the Department of Agriculture's Food Safety Inspection Service. |
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Aware that larger processing plants generally have greater resources and staff than smaller plants, the FSIS "will provide special training sessions, such as outreach for new E. coli O157:H7 testing programs and requirements, for small plant operators," says Karlease Kelly, PhD, who will oversee the program. "It's also aimed at helping small and very small plants with implementing food safety and public health regulations," she adds.
Dr. Kelly, whose PhD is in industrial and organizational psychology, says the FSIS defines a "small" plant as having between 10 and 500 employees and a "very small" plant as having fewer than 10 employees or annual sales of less than $2.5 million.
Dr. Kelly says the FSIS will get the word out to these plants to let them know about the program through routine inspections, "so our workforce is an integral component of educating the industry of the resources available."
She notes that the agency also has monthly industry meetings "in which many industry representative groups participate who can then notify their members. FSIS also recently launched Small Plant News , a newsletter focused on issues of interest to small and very small plant operators. We also have a weekly newsletter for both industry and consumer groups titled Constituent Update that provides reminders."
The outreach program is so new that some state agriculture departments haven't been filled in on the extent and depth of the services that will be provided.
"Anything they can do to facilitate food safety is a good thing, but the real challenge with FSIS or any small plant operators is having the operators accepted by the health department as an approved food source," says Wayne Kasacek, assistant director of the bureau of regulation and inspection at the Connecticut Department of Agriculture (CDA).
Some are taking a wait-and-see approach.
"We haven't talked to them (FSIS) yet about how they plan to get the information out or how it will impact plants not routinely inspected, so we're waiting for that before weighing in," says Bruce Sherman, DVM, director of the CDA's regulatory division. |
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