Inspection

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A recent review provides insight into the challenges of conducting retail food inspections during the COVID-19 pandemic, and summarizes lessons that can be learned for future unprecedented public health events.

We have been monitoring the relationships between food processors and regulators for a number of years. Our attention to this topic started with the implementation of FSMA to watch the evolution of the FDA's enforcement posture, as well as inspection and sampling procedures related to the new requirements. Now that the FDA has resumed its regular in-person inspections, we asked processors: (1) whether they have had an inspection so far in 2022 and, if so, did FDA collect any samples; (2) now that processors are seeing inspectors again, do they still agree that FDA "educates before it regulates"; and (3) with their experiences from recent and previous inspections, what do processors wish that regulators understood better? This column presents answers from more than 300 food processors in every category on these and related regulatory questions. 

A California U.S. District Court has upheld the authority of swine processing plant employees to pre-sort animals prior to slaughter as outlined in the Modernization of Swine Slaughter Inspection Rule under the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s New Swine Inspection Service.

The National Association of County and City Health Officials recently published a study, grounded in the Voluntary National Retail Food Regulatory Program Standards, that analyzed the factors affecting the implementation of food safety risk factor intervention strategies among local retail food regulatory programs.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA’s FSIS) and the state of Oregon have finalized a cooperative agreement that allow for Oregon’s inspection program to inspect meat products produced for shipment within the state.

The Association of Food and Drug Officials (AFDO) published a guidance that clarifies the differences between mandatory requirements of the Produce Safety Rule (PSR) and multiple U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) audits.

AIB International has updated its Consolidated Standards for Inspections, and the group will be providing free educational sessions and resources for stakeholders regarding the updates.

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland recently published an audit report that focused on food businesses’ levels of compliance with food law as it relates to traceability and labeling for meat products.

During a Tuesday afternoon workshop of the 2022 Food Safety Summit, regulators and the regulated industry shared suggestions for how to better communicate together and meet regulated requirements while maintaining a sensible level of operational necessity.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many companies to pivot to virtual food safety audits and inspections, but there has been reluctance to sustain this model of remote evaluations. Recently, advances have emerged in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and development of novel approaches to auditing that have worked to bridge the gap and help virtual audits and inspections move closer to gaining equivalency to traditional onsite formats.