The President directed the USDA, Health and Human Services (HHS), and
the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to consult with all interested
parties to identify and report on specific steps to improve the safety of the
food supply, and to ensure it remains the safest in the world. Two public
meetings were held to solicit input from States, consumers, producers,
industry, universities, and the public. The final report, released May 12,
1997, reflects the interactive process. It outlines steps USDA, HHS, and
EPA will take to reduce foodborne illness.
These more recent developments build on our earlier efforts in this arena that
have already come to fruition with the publication of our landmark rule on
Pathogen Reduction and HACCP Systems, on July 25, 1996. This rule is the
centerpiece of our new regulatory approach and will enable us to step
confidently into the 21st century. The rule mandates HACCP, sets certain
food safety performance standards, establishes testing programs to ensure
that standards are met, and assigns new tasks to inspectors to enable them to
ensure regulatory performance standards are met. The final rule applies to
6,500 federally inspected and 2,550 state inspected slaughter and processing
plants in the U.S., as well as to countries who export meat and poultry
products to the U.S. Although egg products are not covered by the rule, yet,
we have developed a strategy, including HACCP, to improve the safety of
eggs and egg products. We'll extend this system to cover eggs, eventually.
What is HACCP? HACCP is a process control system designed to enable
industry to identify and prevent microbial, chemical, and physical hazards in
food production, and correct deviations as soon as they're detected. It is
based on the premise that the logical and proven way to ensure safe food and
prevent problems is to control the process from beginning to end, rather than
detecting problems at the end of the line. HACCP is comprised of 7 steps:
1) Hazard analysis; 2) Critical Control Points; 3) Establishment of Critical
Limits; 4) Monitoring Procedures; 5) Corrective Actions; 6) Record Keeping;
and 7) Verification Procedures.
Under the new rule, businesses that produce food are accountable for its
safety. They need to maintain control over their systems for sanitation,
sanitary dressing, and food processing. They need to ensure their systems
include established procedures to prevent, eliminate, or reduce to an
acceptable level hazards that may occur. To accomplish this, all plants must
develop and implement a HACCP plan for each process, and conform to the
principles of HACCP.
This is not a "one-size-fits-all" approach. Rather, each plant designs its own
plan to meet USDA regulatory requirements. Each plan must be transparent
and self-contained. The plans are required to address those Critical Control
Points (CCP's) that affect product safety as opposed to those related to
economic adulteration, labeling, or quality concerns. Other inspection
measures remain in place to address those areas. This is regulatory