On February 1, 2012, USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) issued Notice 08-12 that provides instructions to Inspection Program Personnel (IPP) who are in establishments that produce ready-to-eat (RTE) meat and poultry products. The HACCP regulation requires that establishments conduct a hazard analysis to determine what food safety hazards are reasonably likely to occur in their production practices and to identify measures to control these hazards. Under this directive, the IPP should verify that all hazards have been included in facilities’ hazard analysis. Establishments should also consider the potential hazards from ingredients added to these RTE meat and poultry products and the IPP should not assume that all ingredients have been treated to address potential pathogens.
A copy of this notice can be found here: http://www.fsis.usda.gov/OPPDE/rdad/FSISNotices/08-12.pdf.
