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January 5, 2006

MEAT HYGIENE DIRECTIVE: 2006 - 02

SUBJECT: Chapter 11 - United States of America - Section 11.7.3 - Annex D

This is further to Meat Hygiene Directive 2005-58, issued on December 19, 2005.

Correction of typo on the first page of Annex D (English and French versions).

ENGLISH VERSION

Please replace pages 14 and 15 of the United States of Chapter 11 of your copy of the Manual of Procedures with the attached new pages.

FRENCH VERSION

Please replace pages 15 and 16 of the United States of Chapter 11 of your copy of the Manual of Procedures with the attached new pages.

Dr. William R. Anderson
Director
Food of Animal Origin Division

Attachment

ANNEX D

SUBJECT:

Frequency of visits to free-standing meat processing plants eligible to export to the U.S.

The following procedures apply to all free-standing meat processing plants that are eligible to export to the U.S. This information was originally sent out in the form of a memorandum dated August 19, 2005.

1. Changes to the Frequency of inspection in registered meat processing establishments:

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has indicated to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) that it does not consider the CFIA Frequency of Inspection Level (FOIL) system to be equivalent to US measures. The FSIS has indicated to the CFIA that it does not consider that products produced under FOIL pose an increased public health risk - nonetheless, the FSIS is requiring daily visits in facilities because of a legal interpretation indicating that daily visits must be performed to satisfy the US regulatory requirement for ‘continuous inspection’. Establishments where slaughter operations are taking place are considered to be under such inspection on days when slaughter takes place - on days where there is no slaughter, these plants are considered as free-standing processing plants and will need to have a CFIA visit.

The CFIA has been provided until August 22, 2005 to undertake action according to the following plan:

Immediate Action (upon receipt of this memorandum)

• CFIA inspectors in free-standing processing facilities to consult with their supervisor and, re-arrange their work schedules to increase the frequency of visits as much as possible to daily.

Short-term (by September 12th, 2005)

• CFIA inspectors to be trained and begin use of streamlined Multi-Commodity Activities Program (MCAP) Inspection procedures. The changes will provide more flexibility for scheduling and reporting of inspection activities and visits.
• Daily inspection visits to take place in affected establishments, with limited exceptions, by this time.

Medium term (before January 2006)

• A critical review of MCAP-Inspection tasks to be performed - streamline and reduce tasks if possible and validate the number of hours required per week to inspect free-standing meat processing plants.

Long term (no later than June 30, 2007)

• A scientific study will be designed and performed in order to provide the necessary evidence in support of less than daily inspections in free standing meat processing plants.

2. Changes to the MCAP-Inspection Guide:

With regards to the proposed changes to the MCAP-Inspection Guide, these consist of:

• The period of an individual MCAP inspections changes from a "per visit" to a "per week" basis. Thus, each inspection will now last the entire scheduled week (and, if necessary, any additional days of operation requested by the operator and approved by the CFIA) - note that the amount of time expected to be spent in the plant does NOT change as a result of this modification;