I. PURPOSE

This directive outlines the actions that a District Manager (DM) may take when a meat or poultry establishment, egg products plant, or an import inspection establishment is not operating (i.e., inactive) or is operating but not conducting operations that require FSIS inspectional oversight (e.g., facility is a dual jurisdiction establishment, but is currently only producing Food and Drug Administration products). This directive provides instructions regarding communicating with an inactive establishment or plant, and actions to be taken when an establishment or plant has failed to respond to District Office (DO) inquiries about its operational status and intentions (i.e., the issuance of a ten-day letter). FSIS is reissuing this directive to include an instruction to the DM that he or she is to wait 15 days for a response after sending a 10-day letter to an egg products plant for inactive operations before acting on the letter. FSIS is also reissuing this directive to update the instructions concerning the Public Health Information System (PHIS).

II. CANCELLATION FSIS Directive 5220.3, Issuance of a Ten-Day Letter for Inactive Operations, 2/7/06 FSIS PHIS Directive 5220.3, Issuance of a Ten-Day Letter for Inactive Operations, 4/11/11

III. BACKGROUND A. An official meat or poultry establishment, an egg products plant, or an official import inspection establishment may request a voluntary suspension of inspection services for purposes such as, but not limited to, when the facility is for sale; when minor to major structural change or remodeling is being done; when the presence of inspection program personnel (IPP) or import inspection personnel is not needed; or when there is an unforeseen disaster. A voluntary suspension of inspection services is temporary and, except for establishments that operate on a seasonal basis, normally should not exceed 120 calendar days.

NOTE: From here on, official meat and poultry establishments and import inspection establishments will be referred to as “establishments,” and egg products plants will be referred to as “plants.” However, in PHIS, the term “establishment” is used to identify meat and poultry establishments, import inspection establishments, and egg products plants.

B. When situations beyond the establishment’s or plant’s control arise (e.g., inability to obtain equipment on schedule or inability to complete major structural changes because of weather conditions), the DM, at the establishment’s or plant’s request, may extend the 120-calendar day suspension for an additional time period.

C. If a seasonal establishment or plant has gone one year or more without conducting any operations, the DM is to follow the instructions in Section IV below.

IV. PROCEDURES FOR COMMUNICATING WITH INACTIVE ESTABLISHMENTS AND PLANTS

A. If an establishment or plant is inactive for more than 120 days and has not communicated its intentions, or if it ceases operations and has failed to communicate why the establishment or plant has been inactive to the DO, the DO is to send a letter to the plant or establishment address listed in PHIS. An example of a 10-day letter is provided in Attachment 1.

B. The letter is to be sent by overnight service with a “Return Receipt Requested” (e.g., U.S.P.S., Fed-Ex, UPS) and is to clearly inform the establishment or plant of the following:

• 1. The establishment or plant needs to respond back to the DM within 10 business days from the receipt of the 10-day letter. If the DO does not receive a response within 15 business days from the receipt of the 10-day letter, it will consider the grant of inspection to have been abandoned and voluntarily withdrawn;
• 2. The grant of inspection and the assigned establishment or plant number will be changed to “Voluntarily Withdrawn;”

NOTE: PHIS will not reassign a previously used establishment or plant number to a new request for a grant of inspection.

• 3. If the establishment or plant intends to resume operations, it needs to respond to the DM within 10 business days from the receipt of the 10-day letter. The establishment or plant in its response needs to propose a date that is acceptable to the DM on which it will resume inspected operations. The letter needs to inform the establishment or plant that its response must be received by the DO within 15 business days from the date that the establishment or plant received the 10-day letter;
• 4. The DM will reinstate an establishment’s inspection service only after FSIS finds the sanitary conditions, the written Sanitation Standard Operating Procedures, the HACCP food safety system, and the written recall procedure to be acceptable; and
• 5. The DM will reinstate inspection service to a plant only after FSIS finds sanitary conditions to be acceptable.

C. The DO is to e-mail a copy of the letter to the IIC, FLS, and DDM for that establishment or plant.

V. ACTIONS TO BE TAKEN BASED ON ESTABLISHMENT OR PLANT RESPONSE

A. If the DM does not receive a response within 15 business days of receipt of the letter, if the letter is returned “Not Deliverable,” or if the establishment or plant responds that it does not intend to continue to operate, the DM is to:

1. Treat the grant of inspection as being voluntarily withdrawn;
2. Complete FSIS Form 5200-3, Voluntary Suspension or Voluntary Withdrawal of Inspection Service. Send a copy of the completed form to the establishment or plant through an overnight service with a “Return Receipt Requested” (e.g., U.S.P.S., Fed-Ex, UPS);
3. E-mail an electronic copy of the completed FSIS Form 5200-3 to the Inspector in Charge, Frontline Supervisor and Deputy District Manager for that establishment or plant; and
4. Update PHIS to reflect the appropriate status of the establishment or plant (see section VI).

B. If the establishment or plant responds that it intends to resume inspection with a tentative date acceptable to the DM, then no further action needs to be taken by the DM. If the DM determines that additional information is needed from the establishment or plant, however, the DM is to inform the owner of what additional information is required.

NOTE: Given the length of time that an establishment or plant has been inactive, sanitary conditions may need to be verified before inspection can resume. The DM may direct his or her field supervisors to assess the establishment’s or plant’s sanitary condition before reassigning inspectors.

VI. UPDATING PHIS

A. For voluntary withdrawals, the DM or his or her designee is to make the appropriate status change in the establishment profile in PHIS. He or she is to:

1. Open the Home page of the establishment or plant;

• a. In the Application menu, click on Operating schedule;
• b. Once this window opens, under the “Approved Hours of Operation” tab, click the edit icon; and
• c. Once this window opens, uncheck the Active box in the Edit window and click Save.

2. Next, click on Grants and Approvals in the Application menu:

• a. Once this window opens, click the term “Granted” under the Status box for each type of grant;
• b. Once this window opens, adjacent the term “New status” is an oblong box with a drop down arrow. Click on the arrow and then select “Voluntary Withdrawn” from the menu; and
• c. Click Save and then exit the program.

NOTE: If the establishment or plant has multiple grants (e.g., meat and poultry), then this process will need to be conducted for each type of grant in order for the PHIS system to function correctly.

B. If an establishment or plant owner or representative submits a new FSIS 5200-2 requesting to come back under inspection and requesting use of the former establishment number, the DM or designee (e.g., the Grant Curator) is to submit a FootPrint ticket requesting that the status of the grant of the withdrawn establishment or plant be changed to “Granted” or “Conditional.” If the establishment or plant has more than one “type of grant,” the FootPrint ticket will need to specify which types need to be changed.

VI. QUESTIONS

Refer questions through supervisory channels.

See full PDF for Attachment

• DRAFT EXAMPLE CERTIFIED – RETURN RECEIPT REQUESTED