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Food Safety and Inspection
Service United States Department of Agriculture Washington, D.C. 20250-3700 |
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Food Safety and Inspection
Service United States Department of Agriculture Washington, D.C. 20250-3700 |
Congressional and Public Affairs
(202) 720-9113; FAX: (202) 690-0460
Andrea McNally
WASHINGTON, March 22, 2002 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service announced that a final rule to include ratites and squabs under mandatory poultry inspection regulations published in the Federal Register today and will become effective May 21.
Ratites are flightless birds such as ostriches, emus and rheas. Squabs are young pigeons from one to about 30 days of age.
Some ratites and squabs were inspected under the agency’s voluntary program, where establishments paid a fee for inspection services. However, as part of the Fiscal Year 2001 Agriculture Appropriations Act, $2.5 million was appropriated for their mandatory inspection. The final rule is an affirmation of the May 2001 interim rule, which placed under mandatory inspection U.S. establishments slaughtering or processing ratites or squabs for distribution into commerce as human food.
Establishments that slaughter and process ratites and squabs will be required to implement and validate sanitation standard operating procedures and Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point systems, as required by mandatory poultry inspection regulations. Establishments can receive conditional grants of inspection for a period of not more than 90 days while they validate their plans for operating under the science-based system.
FSIS amended the interim rule by changing the definition of squabs from "young pigeons that have not flown" to "young pigeons from one to about 30 days of age," as well as amending part of the regulation's language to increase clarity. FSIS also added information on E. coli testing and sampling for ratites and squabs as it does for other species under mandatory inspection.
Comments submitted on the interim final rule and specific changes to the language may be reviewed at http://www.fsis.usda.gov/OPPDE/rdad/FRPubs/01-045F.htm.
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NOTE: Access news releases and other information at the FSIS web site at http://www.fsis.usda.gov.
For Further Information, Contact:
FSIS Congressional and Public Affairs Staff
Phone: (202) 720-9113
Fax: (202) 690-0460