The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has developed new guidance, titled “FSIS Compliance Guide for a Systematic Approach to the Humane Handling of Livestock,” that outlines a set of practices for livestock slaughter establishments that support the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act. Noting that the agency has taken “significant” measures during the past few years to strengthen its ability to enforce humane handling laws at livestock slaughter facilities nationwide, FSIS Administrator Al Almanza said that the guidance will assist facilities in “minimizing excitement, discomfort and accidental injury” of animals presented for slaughter. FSIS has also reiterated its intent to better equip employees to prevent and respond to inhumane handling incidents by delivering “more practical, situation-based humane handling training to inspectors and veterinarians who verify and enforce humane handling requirements at livestock slaughter establishments.” The training covers various realistic animal-handling scenarios that employees may encounter, including truck…
Category Archives Department of Agriculture
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) has published a final rule addressing the recommendations submitted by the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) as part of the 2013 sunset review of substances on USDA’s National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances (the National List), which governs the use of synthetic and non-synthetic substances in organic crop and livestock production and handling. In addition to renewing for five years multiple exemptions (uses) and one prohibition on the National List in accordance with NOSB’s recommendations, AMS has removed an exemption for the synthetic form of tartaric acid made from malic acid, thus prohibiting its use in organic handling. Effective November 3, 2013, the final rule also includes the agency’s response to comments on the renewals of two synthetic substances—EPA List 3 Inerts and cellulose—and one non-synthetic substance—carrageenan—that are currently permitted in organic crop production, handling and processing. In particular,…
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) has issued a final rule, effective Oct. 17, 2013, amending regulations governing the standards for the condition of food containers. According to the agency, revising existing tables, removing operating characteristic curves and updating language in the standards will render them applicable to most types of food containers and align them with current industry practices. AMS also noted that since the standards were last amended in May 1983, innovations in packaging technologies have provided an increasingly wide variety of acceptable new food containers, including aseptic packaging, metal cans with easy-open lids, and plastic rings that hold several containers together. See Federal Register, September 17, 2013.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service and the Food and Drug Administration have announced an August 5, 2013, public meeting in Washington, D.C., to provide information and receive public comments on agenda items and draft U.S. positions for discussion during the 21st Session of the Codex Committee on Residues of Veterinary Drugs of the Codex Alimentarius Commission in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on August 26-30, 2013. Agenda items include a report on World Organization for Animal Health activities; proposed draft maximum residue limits (MRLs) for veterinary drugs; proposed draft guidelines on performance characteristics for multi-residue methods; and a discussion paper on MRLs and other limits in honey. See Federal Register, June 20, 2103. Issue 488
A federal court in the District of Columbia has denied the American Meat Institute’s motion for a preliminary injunction in a challenge to the amended country-of-origin labeling (COOL) rules adopted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Agricultural Marketing Service in response to a World Trade Organization (WTO) determination that the original rules violated the WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade by according less favorable treatment to foreign livestock. Am. Meat Inst. v. USDA, No. 13-1033 (D.D.C., decided September 11, 2013). The court was not persuaded that the plaintiffs, meat processing interests, were likely to succeed on the merits of their First Amendment and statutory challenges to the amended rule. Additional information about the challenge appears in Issue 495 of this Update. Assessing the First Amendment claims under a lenient reasonableness standard because the rule involved commercial speech that mandated purely factual and uncontroversial disclosures, the court determined that…
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Agricultural Marketing Service has announced an October 22-24, 2013, public meeting of the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) in Louisville, Kentucky. The meeting will address “several petitions pertaining to changes to the National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances, including several substances for use in aquaculture, streptomycin for use to control fire blight in pears and apples, and glycerin,” in addition to featuring updates from the NOSB subcommittees on Compliance, Accreditation, and Certification; Crops; Handling; Livestock; Materials; Policy Development; and Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO). In particular, the GMO Ad-Hoc Subcommittee will discuss how to ensure and enforce the genetic purity of seed used in organic crop production. NOSB will accept written public comments on the meeting agenda and registrations for oral public comments by October 1, 2013. See Federal Register and NOSB Press Release, September 5, 2013.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently issued a report finding that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) did not adequately evaluate the impact of proposed poultry and hog inspection changes that would replace some USDA inspectors on slaughter lines with plant personnel tasked with ensuring quality and safety standards. According to the report, USDA implemented several pilot projects at poultry and hog processing plants over the past decade but ultimately failed to gather enough data to assess the effectiveness of these new systems. Nevertheless, the agency has since proposed an optional inspection scheme for both poultry and hog operations “based on its experience with the pilot projects at young chicken and young turkey plants.” Asked to review these pilot projects by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), GAO determined that the proposed changes would give production plants more flexibility and responsibility while allowing inspectors to focus…
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has issued a request for comments regarding changes to its procedure for Salmonella verification sampling of raw beef products. Among other things, FSIS stated that it will (i) begin “analyzing for Salmonella all raw beef samples that it collects for Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) analysis,” including all raw ground beef, beef manufacturing trimmings, bench trim, and other raw ground beef components; (ii) increase the raw ground beef sample used for Salmonella analysis from 25 grams to 325 grams; and (iii) discontinue Salmonella sampling set procedures in ground beef products, except in those establishments that exceeded the standard for Salmonella in their most recent tests. FSIS intends to use the results from its verification sampling program to develop new Salmonella performance standards for ground beef products and to estimate Salmonella prevalence in raw ground beef and trimmings. Comments will be accepted…
U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) has sent an August 23, 2013, letter to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Under Secretary for Food Safety Elisabeth Hagen about “the ongoing problems with the Public Health Information System (PHIS) used by the Food Safety [and] Inspection Service (FSIS).” Citing reports that PHIS recently experienced a system-wide shutdown that lasted three days and allowed “millions of pounds of meat products” to leave processing plants without being tested for E. coli, DeLauro has asked USDA to provide a record of similar major incidents as well as an “analysis of the problems with the system, the impact on food safety and steps being taken to remedy these problems, including those related to software and connectivity.” She has also asked for details about the parameters of the PHIS contract “that ensure long-term solutions are made to issues that arise in the system,” in addition to “the metrics…
A federal court in the District of Columbia will consider on August 27, 2013, whether to issue a preliminary injunction to stop the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) from implementing country-of-origin labeling (COOL) program changes required by a 2011 World Trade Organization (WTO) determination that, as initially drafted, the rules gave less favorable treatment to cattle and hogs imported from Canada and Mexico. Am. Meat Inst. v. USDA, No. 13-1033 (filed July 8, 2013). Information about the revised COOL rule appears in Issue 485 of this Update. A number of meat-processing interests, including the American Meat Institute, Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, Confederación Nacional de Organizaciones Ganaderas, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, and National Pork Producers Council, challenged the new rule alleging that it violates First Amendment rights under the U.S. Constitution, exceeds USDA’s authority and violated the Administrative Procedure Act. In early August, the U.S. Cattlemen’s Association (USCA), National Farmers Union, American…
