The demand for safe food could soon shut some meat and
poultry processors down.
That’s not the way it’s supposed to work. But if processors
don’t meet a Jan. 27
federal deadline, that’s the way it will be.
"The deadline is for anyone who sells meat or poultry
wholesale," said Estes
Reynolds, a food scientist with the University of Georgia
Extension Service.
"All plants must meet the Sanitation Standard Operating
Procedures requirements on
Jan. 27, 1997," he said.
Georgia’s huge poultry industry isn’t likely to have much
trouble meeting the deadline.
"They’re in pretty good shape," Reynolds said.
"The smaller processors,
though, are not as prepared."
Sanitation SOPs are the first step in putting a new
inspection system into place. The
final rule on the Pathogen Reduction and Hazard Analysis and
Critical Control Point
Systems was announced July 25, 1996.
The written SOPs must include five parts, including the
signature of the
highest-ranking official at the plant. Other items must
identify:
* What will be done before and during the operation to
prevent contamination of the
meat or poultry product.
* How work surfaces, equipment and utensils will be kept
clean.
* Who will be responsible for doing these things.
* What daily records will be maintained to assure that the
SOPs are carried out.
Plants with SOPs that fail to include any of those parts will
have their inspection
suspended until the inspector rules that the plant has
complied.
In short, plants that fail to comply will be out of business,
according to the Georgia
Department of Agriculture.
Reynolds and other UGA food scientists are leading a pair of
December workshops to help
processors comply. They will explain the new rules. And they’ll
show, step by step, how to
write SOPs that meet them.
The workshops will be Dec. 6 in Tifton, Ga., and Dec. 11 in
Athens. A $90 fee covers
breaks, lunch and a notebook.
To learn more about the workshops, call Reynolds at (706) 542-
2574. Or call Jane
Mertens at (706) 542-6592 about the Athens workshop, or Verna
Kea at (912) 386-3416 about
the Tifton program.
When it’s fully in place, HACCPS will bring the most sweeping
food inspection changes
in 30 years, Reynolds said.
Safety is built into the system to make sure anything that
could contaminate or
adulterate food doesn’t happen, he said. It won’t rely just on
sight, smell and physical
checks of a sample of food products, but will monitor the safety
of the whole process.
"Eventually," Reynolds said, "HACCPS will
protect the safety of our food
from the farm to the table."
The seafood industry has already put the system into place,
he said. The food service
part of the system, called "Serv-Safe," is also being
carried out in restaurants
and other food service businesses.
