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Eligibility of the Dominican Republic to Export Raw Intact Beef to the United States

FSIS Notice 46-22
Issue Date Aug 16, 2022
Expiration Date Sep 01, 2023
Full Notice
FSIS Notice 46-22
  1. PURPOSE
    This notice provides instructions to inspection program personnel (IPP) at official import inspection establishments on actions to take when verifying the accuracy of foreign inspection certificates for imported raw intact beef products from the Dominican Republic. The certificates provide assurance from the Dominican Republic’s central competent authority that these products were produced under an inspection system equivalent to FSIS requirements.

  2. BACKGROUND

    The Dominican Republic was previously eligible to export meat to the United States. However, in 1999, the Dominican Republic withdrew its eligibility to export meat products to the United States because its inspection system had not yet implemented requirements to be equivalent under FSIS’ final rule, “Pathogen Reduction; Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) Systems” (61 FR 38806). Since that time, the Dominican Republic has not been eligible to export raw beef products to the United States. After reviewing the Dominican Republic’s documented raw intact beef products inspection system and upon completion of an audit of the Dominican Republic’s inspection system for beef slaughter and further raw processing, FSIS determined that the Dominican Republic maintains an equivalent inspection system for raw intact beef products.  As a result, the Dominican Republic is now eligible to export raw intact beef to the United States from cattle slaughtered on and after April 29, 2022.

  3. IPP RESPONSIBILITIES

    1. IPP are to follow the instructions in FSIS Directive 9900.1, Imported Product Shipment Presentation and are to verify the slaughter dates on the inspection certificate are on or after April 29, 2022.
    2. When the inspection certificate does not contain certification of the slaughter dates, or the products are certified as slaughtered before April 29, 2022, IPP are to fail the Certification Type of Inspection (TOI) in the Public Health Information System (PHIS). This will initiate a refused entry in PHIS. IPP are then to refer to FSIS Directive 9900.8, Meat, Poultry, and Egg Products Refused Entry into the United States for disposition.
    3. Raw intact beef products derived from bovine animals slaughtered in the Dominican Republic and certified as slaughtered before April 29, 2022, are not eligible for entry into the United States. 
  4. QUESTIONS
    Refer questions regarding this notice to your immediate supervisor or as needed to the Office of Policy and Program Development through askFSIS or by telephone at 1-800-233-3935. When submitting a question through askFSIS, complete the web form and select Import for the inquiry type.

    NOTE: Refer to FSIS Directive 5620.1, Using askFSIS, for additional information on submitting questions.

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