Source: MEATINGPLACE, 2/26/18

USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) on Friday posted criteria that poultry processors must meet and supporting documentation in order to submit quality for a waiver to line speed limits set forth in the New Poultry Inspection System (NPIS).

The agency said weeks ago  it would establish criteria for individual waivers after it denied a petition from the National Chicken Council that requested that processors operating under NPIS be exempt from the system’s 140-birds-per-minute limit.

Waivers would allow those processors who meet the criteria to operate at line speeds up to 175 birds per minute
In a Constituent Update post on Friday, FSIS said that in order to be eligible for a line speed waiver, an operator:
• Must have been operating under the New Poultry Inspection System (NPIS) for at least one year, during which time it has been in compliance with all NPIS requirements;
• Must be in Salmonella performance standard category 1 or 2 for young chicken carcasses;
• Must have a demonstrated history of regulatory compliance. More specifically, the establishment has not received a public health alert for the last 120 days; has not had an enforcement action as a result of a Food Safety Assessment conducted in the last 120 days; and has not been the subject of a public health related enforcement action in the last 120 days; and
• Must be able to demonstrate that the new equipment, technologies, or procedures that allow the establishment to operate at faster line speeds will maintain or improve food safety.
The waiver request submission will need to include documentation that:
• Provides details about the establishment’s Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) System,including how the establishment addresses the inhibition and reduction of Salmonella;
• Demonstrates that the establishment has effective process control by submitting one year of microbial data, methodology for evaluating that microbial data (e.g., upper and lower control limits), correlation of that microbial data to the establishment’s sanitary dressing process control data, correlation of thatmicrobial data to FSIS’ Salmonella data and interventions to address seasonality;
• Describes how existing or new equipment, technologies, or procedures will allow for the operation at a faster line speed (e.g., descriptions or names of the equipment, line configuration and verification activities that will be used);
• Provides support on how the increased line speed will not negatively impact FSIS employee safety nor interfere with inspection procedures (e.g., information about safety protocols or line configuration);
• Supports how the modifications to its food safety system to operate at the faster line speed will maintain or improve food safety (e.g., a statement that explains how the new equipment will provide the same as or cleaner evisceration processes, or how an improved line configuration will continue to prevent cross contamination); and
• Indicates the type of records that will be maintained in the new process, including the collection of information that will assist FSIS in performing appropriate rule-making analysis (e.g., laboratory results, weekly or monthly summary production reports, and/or evaluations from inspection program personnel).

FSIS will provide those plants granted a waiver with the requirements for operating under a waiver. One condition will be that establishments notify the FSIS inspector-in-charge when they are operating at line speeds higher than 140 birds per minute to allow FSIS to evaluate the establishment’s ability to maintain process control at a given line speed. Plants also will need to participate in the Salmonella Initiative Program. Those consistently unable to maintain process control at line speeds higher than 140 birds per minute or consistently operating at line speeds lower than 140 birds per minute will be subject to waiver revocation.

FSIS will provide additional information on this issue in a notice in the Federal Register in the future. Establishments interested in applying for waivers can contact William Shaw at William.Shaw@fsis.usda.gov.

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