Source: USDA, 9/9/20 The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) today announced that it is modernizing egg products inspection methods for the first time since Congress passed the Egg Products Inspection Act (EPIA) in 1970. The Egg Products Inspection Regulations final rule aligns the egg products regulations to be consistent with current requirements in the meat and poultry products inspection regulations. “Requiring egg product plants to develop food safety systems and procedures similar to meat and poultry requirements is a significant milestone in modernizing our inspection system," said FSIS Administrator Paul Kiecker. “FSIS is continuing to carry out its public health mission to prevent foodborne illness." Under the new rule, federally
inspected egg products plants are required to develop and implement Hazard
Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) systems and Sanitation Standard
Operating Procedures (SSOPs). FSIS will continue to test for Salmonella and
Listeria monocytogenes (Lm) in egg products. FSIS requires that plants produce
egg products that meet food safety standards and are edible without additional
preparation and nothing in the final rule changes those requirements. Under the HACCP system, plants
will be able to tailor a food safety system that best fits their particular
facility and equipment. Furthermore, by removing prescriptive regulations, egg
products plants will have the flexibility and the incentive to innovate new
means to achieve enhanced food safety. In addition, FSIS will be
assuming regulatory authority over egg substitutes and freeze-dried egg
products, which pose the same risk as egg products and will be inspected in the
same manner, enhancing the existing food safety system. The agency has also realigned the
regulations governing the importation and inspection of foreign egg products
more closely with the regulations governing the importation of foreign meat and
poultry products. FSIS will notify foreign countries of the regulatory changes.
Countries that have ongoing equivalence and most countries that have requested
initial equivalence for egg products already have HACCP implemented for egg
products for their domestic products. A pre-publication copy of the rule can be viewed at https://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/wcm/connect/9c7eca7a-29dd-49ca-ae0b-e3faece17d52/2005-0015.pdf?MOD=AJPERES
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