Food Safety and Inspection Service United States Department of Agriculture Washington, D.C.  20250-3700

Office of Policy, Program Development and Evaluation

Meat and Poultry Advisory Committee Staff

 
National Advisory Committee on Meat and Poultry Inspection
October 31-November 1, 2000, Public Meeting
Briefing Paper on Current Thinking

 Purpose:

The Agency would like to update the Committee on the status of the HACCP-Based Inspection Models Project (HIMP). Preliminary data indicate that the new system dramatically improves the safety of poultry products and increases overall consumer protection. In response to a recent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, FSIS has redesigned the project.

FSIS initiated the HACCP-Based Inspection Models Project in October 1999 to determine whether new government slaughter inspection procedures, in conjunction with new plant responsibilities, can improve food safety, increase consumer protection and provide flexibility for FSIS to use its resources more effectively.

• Plants that slaughter young chickens, turkeys and market hogs were eligible to participate in the project as originally designed. The project was designed to accommodate up to 30 plants.

• Participating slaughter plants had to modify their food safety HACCP plans to include the on-line slaughter process; in addition, they had to establish process control systems to prevent and control "other consumer protection" defects such as bruises.

• Participating HIMP plants had to meet the same stringent food safety performance standards as non-participating plants, and they had to do an even better job on consumer protection than slaughter plants under traditional inspection.

Independent data show food safety and consumer protection improvements after HIMP. Research Triangle Institute (RTI), an independent contractor, collected and analyzed organoleptic and microbiological samples from carcasses in slaughter plants under traditional inspection, and again after implementation of HIMP. The contractor collected samples from 14,000 poultry carcasses slaughtered under traditional inspection, and another 14,000 carcasses slaughtered under HIMP (original design). More information on the RTI analysis of sample results from seven plants is included in Attachment 1.

• RTI data showed declines in food safety defects on poultry carcasses after HIMP implementation:

• a 100 percent decline in food safety defects involving infectious conditions such as septicemia and toxemia; and
• a 92 percent decline in food safety defects such as fecal material.

• RTI data also showed marked decreases in most types of consumer protection (OCP) defects on carcasses after HIMP implementation. However,

• in one OCP category -- dressing defects, other (for example, feathers) there was a 26 percent increase in defects on carcasses after HIMP implementation.

FSIS data show gains in food safety and other consumer protections after HIMP implementation. FSIS has also generated data from its own in-plant checks at nine plants so far. FSIS inspectors in the nine HIMP poultry plants recorded data, which was compared with the data from the 16 baseline poultry plants before HIMP implementation. (More information is included in Attachment 2.)

• The tolerance for food safety defects is 0; FSIS data show poultry from HIMP plants came closer to 0 food safety defects than poultry from plants under traditional inspection.

• Almost 0 (0.1367 percent) of the poultry carcasses had "food safety 1" defects (e.g., septicemia, toxemia), compared with 0.1 percent of carcasses in the 16 baseline plants; and

• Only 0.4 percent of the poultry carcasses had "food safety 2" defects (e.g., fecal contamination), compared with 1.5 percent of the carcasses in the baseline plants.

• Poultry carcasses from HIMP plants had fewer defects than carcasses in baseline plants in all five OCP categories, including the OCP-4 category of dressing defects – other (which includes feathers). (As noted above, RTI data showed an increase in this category.)

Redesigned HACCP-Based Inspection Models Project (Effective 9/18/00)

Poultry. Under the redesigned HIMP poultry project, there are changes in the inspector location, although the actual number of inspectors does not change. (For more information on the redesigned HIMP for poultry, see Attachment 3. For an overview of the redesigned HIMP for market hogs, see Attachment 4 (Pdf).)

• Carcass Inspector (Poultry). The position of carcass inspector represents a change. In the redesigned project, FSIS positions at least one FSIS inspector at a fixed inspection station on the slaughter line between the final wash and the chiller. The carcass inspector is responsible for:

• examining each carcass; and
• determining whether the carcass is adulterated.

• Oversight Inspector. The role of the "oversight" inspector is eliminated in the redesigned project.

• Verification Inspector. FSIS will continue to utilize one verification inspector on each slaughter line, who will focus on verifying that the plant's HACCP system is working. The verification inspector, who does not have a fixed position on the slaughter line, will continue to:

• evaluate the effectiveness of the establishment’s HACCP and slaughter process control systems;
• sample 80 carcasses per line per shift for food safety defects;
• sample 20 carcasses per line per shift for OCP defects;
• select samples for microbiological testing; and
• review plant records.

• Inspector food safety and consumer protection checks under HIMP as redesigned

• No change in food safety checks. FSIS inspectors in HIMP plants still conduct food safety checks four times as often as in traditional slaughter plants.
• No change in consumer protection checks. FSIS inspectors in HIMP plants still conduct more checks than in traditional slaughter plants.

Attachment 1: Accomplishments of the HACCP-Based Inspection Models Project (July 2000)

Attachment 2: FSIS Inspection Results Measuring HIMP Plant Performance Against Pilot Performance Standards For the Period 2/1/00 - 8/31/00 (nine plants)

Attachment 3: Statement by Administrator Thomas J. Billy, including charts of poultry slaughter under traditional inspection, original HIMP design and redesigned HIMP (August 31, 2000)

Attachment 4: Overview of market hog slaughter process (ante-mortem and carcass inspection) under redesigned HIMP (September 2000) [PDF]

Michael Grasso
Project Manager, Office of Policy, Program Development, and Evaluation
(202) 205-0025

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Last modified:  November 25, 2002