Wednesday USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service will publish proposed regulations to implement a new voluntary cooperative program under which select State-inspected establishments will be eligible to ship meat and poultry products in interstate commerce. The new program, created in the 2008 Farm Bill, will allow State-inspected plants with 25 or fewer employees to ship products across state lines.
Under the proposed rule selected establishments will receive inspection services from federally trained and/or supervised State inspection personnel who will verify that the establishments meet all Federal food safety requirements. Meat and poultry products produced under the voluntary cooperative program will bear an official USDA mark of inspection, thereby enabling interstate shipment of the products.
Currently, 27 states operate State meat or poultry inspection programs, and FSIS verifies that the State programs are implementing requirements that are at least equal to those imposed under the Federal meat and poultry products inspection acts. For these programs, FSIS provides up to 50% of the State's operating funds and provides oversight and enforcement of the program.
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