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| Commonly Asked Questions from Small and Very Small Plants on Sanitation
Standard Operating Procedures (1) |
Q1: What is meant by food contact surface?
A1: A food contact surface is any surface that may come in direct
contact with exposed product. Examples would include conveyor belts, table tops, saw blades,
augers, and stuffers.
Q2: If "retraining employees" is the proposed preventive measure
for meeting the corrective action requirement, is an establishment
required to document the specific retraining event when it occurs?
A2:
If the establishment's preventive measure is that the employee "will be retrained", documentation
that retraining occurred is required to demonstrate that the training was performed to meet
the requirement of 9 CFR 416.15(b) and 9 CFR 416.16(a).
Q3: Can Sanitation SOP records be presented in
languages other than English?
A3: Sanitation SOP records must be presented in a manner
that FSIS can verify that regulatory requirements are met. This may include making
an interpreter available to the inspection program personnel.
Q4: Am I required to implement and document preventive measures
when I find unclean food contact surfaces during pre-operational sanitation monitoring
?
A4: 9 CFR 416.15 requires that any time the establishment or FSIS observes
unclean conditions on food contact surfaces during pre-operational inspection, the
establishment must initiate and document corrective actions that include procedures
to prevent recurrence of the unclean condition.
Q5: I slaughter Monday but only process on Tuesday. When should Sanitation
SOP records for Monday operations be available for FSIS review?
A5: 9 CFR 416.16 requires official establishments to maintain daily records.
FSIS clarified that establishments have until the beginning of the same shift the next
operating day to have the records available. The Sanitation SOP is for the entire
establishment. Therefore Monday's records should be available for FSIS review at the
beginning of the processing shift on Tuesday.
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Last Modified: October 11, 2006 |
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