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Script: askFSIS |
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Intro:
Welcome to USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service
podcast. Each episode will bring you cutting edge news and information
about how FSIS is working to ensure public health protection
through food safety. While we’re on the job, you can rest assured
that your meat, poultry, and processed egg products are safe,
wholesome, properly labeled, and packaged correctly. So turn
up your volume and listen in.
Host:
Hello and welcome! This is Mary Gioglio from the Food Safety
and Inspection Service. Today, joining me is Jeff Tarrant
from FSIS to discuss a web-based feature that’s available
24-hours a day, which makes getting answers to your technical
and policy-related questions much easier. Welcome Jeff!
Guest:
Hello Mary. FSIS is always looking at ways to provide timely
and up-to-date information to the folks who work in the meat,
poultry and processed egg products industries. Questions come
into the Agency on a daily basis and one of the ways FSIS can
make sure questions are answered is by making information
available in a user-friendly way 24-hours a day. askFSIS
is a new feature on FSIS’ web site to do just that. It was
launched in August 2007 and is already a big hit.
Host:
Jeff, you said askFSIS is on the Agency’s web site.
Where can we find it on the web site and how can people
access it for information?
Guest:
That’s the easy part. There are two ways to access
askFSIS from
www.fsis.usda.gov.
On the right side of the screen is a box with the words “I
Want To.” Within that box is the link labeled “askFSIS an
Inspection Related Question.” Just click on that link and it
takes you directly to askFSIS. Another way to access
it is to click on the button labeled “Help” at the top of the
home page. askFSIS is one of the options listed under Help.
Host:
You’re right. That is simple. Once on the askFSIS page, what
can people expect to see?
Guest:
Well, let me take you through that now. There are four tabs
at the top of the page: The “Answers” tab and “My Questions”
tab are both on the left side. The “Login” and “Help” tabs
are on the right. Below the tabs you’ll see a display of the
most popular topics. This list may change from time to time
depending on the questions being asked. Items may also be
posted with the word “Update” if the information has been
updated since the last posting or you may see the word “New”
before an entry which indicates a new question is posted. All
you have to do is click on a question your interested in, and
the answer will appear.
Host:
I’m looking at the askFSIS page now and see the summary list
of questions. I also see three other ways to find
information. There are tabs labeled: 1 – Search by Product, 2
- Search by Category, and 3 – Search by Keyword. What can you
tell us about these options?
Guest:
Well, if you click on the “Search by Product” field a
dropdown list appears with the options “All”, “General
Inspection Policy”, “Import”, “Export” and “Labeling.” If a
visitor selects one of those options, they’ll receive a list
of questions relating to the product type selected.
If a visitor uses the next tab which is the “Search by
Category” tab, a dropdown list appears with several more
categories to choose from. And, if a visitor is looking for a
specific topic, they can just type in a word in the “Search
by Keyword” field and a list of questions based on that
keyword will appear.
Host:
It seems pretty easy to navigate through askFSIS with the
three search options. But, what if I want to ask a question
that’s not in askFSIS? How would I do that?
Guest:
Then let me tell you about the “My Questions” and “Login”
buttons which require a user to log in before asking
questions. If you already have an account then just follow
the prompts to log in. If you don’t have an account, there’s
a section on the page that will allow you to create a new
account. Once the account is created, you can enter a
question from the tab labeled “My Questions.” You can check
on the status of a question, and you can even save questions
and answers.
Host:
This seems like a quick way to find information about FSIS
regulations, policies and operations. Thanks Jeff for
providing an overview of askFSIS and thanks to all of you out
there listening. Remember to visit the FSIS web site at
www.fsis.usda.gov and askFSIS.
Outro:
Well, that’s all for this episode. We’d like your feedback
on our podcast. Or if you have ideas for future podcasts, send
us an e-mail at podcast@fsis.usda.gov. To learn more about food
safety, try our web site at
www.fsis.usda.gov.
Thanks for tuning in.
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