New record-keeping requirements coming for beef product users
Starting 9 January 2007, food processors and cosmetic manufacturers will have to document that they do not use prohibited beef products such as the small intestine, brain, and spinal cord; new rules a response to mad cow fears; specific documentation practices to be announced soon
To every season, turn, turn, and so winter will usher in new Food and Drug Administration (FDA) traceability requirements requiring food processors and cosmetics manufacturers to keep records showing that they do not use any prohibited animal products. The rule, which will take effect 9 January 2007, was adopted in response to the December 2003 discovery in Washington state of mad cow disease in an adult cow imported from Canada. Under the law as it stands today, specified risk materials (SRMs) derived from cattle may not be used for FDA-regulated human food and cosmetics. These include the small intestine, tissue from nonambulatory disabled cattle, and the brain, skull, eyes, trigeminal ganglia, spinal cord, vertebral column, and dorsal root ganglia from cattle thirty months and older.
As with other traceability requirements — and here we are thinking of the trace-back or trace-forward rules under the Bioterrorism Act — records as to the source, type, volume, and date of receipt for the cattle material must be updated annualy. The point, as Food Navigator reports, is to “allow manufacturers and regulators to track food from the source to the consumer. This makes it easier to pinpoint problems when a food safety incident occurs, and make recalls if necessary.” The FDA plans to publish guidance describing acceptable record-keeping procedures soon.
-read more in Ahmad El Amin Food Navigator report [http://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/news/ng.asp?n=71248-fda-srms-bse]
