RESTON, VA. – The North American Meat Processors Association (N.A.M.P.) said it has major concerns about the draft compliance guidelines on the validation of H.A.C.C.P. systems the Food Safety and Inspection Service (F.S.I.S.) released last week (for information: http://www.fsis.usda.gov/PDF/HACCP_Validation_Ltrs.pdf). 

N.A.M.P.’s concern is about the ability of plants to comply with these new requirements, especially since there may be no food safety benefit, it adds. Costs of the new requirements could be alarmingly high for some companies.

The association has been working on this issue as part of a broad industry association coalition for more than seven months. Prior to the release of the document, N.A.M.P. communicated with F.S.I.S. on numerous occasions about its concerns, especially for small processors, it claims.

F.S.I.S. has been preparing to release additional information on validation for some time now and is requesting comments on the guidelines from all interested parties. N.A.M.P. will work in the coming days to provide members with additional resources to use when submitting comments.

FSIS set a deadline of April 19 to receive public comments, but industry groups already had requested an extension. Comments should be submitted to DraftValidationGuideComments@fsis.usda.gov.