International Meat and Poultry HACCP Alliance Update

The release of the proposed HACCP/Pathogen reduction regulation on February 3, 1995, by the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service has underscored the commitment of the agency to making the HACCP system an integral part of the agency’s inspection program for meat and poultry. As a result, industry must be ready for the inevitable, and ideally should have HACCP programs developed and in place in their operations well before the regulations are implemented. The Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point system, a preventative system of hazard control, should be used in the meat and poultry industry not only because it is mandated by regulatory agencies, but because it is the right thing to do. HACCP programs involve the development of HACCP plans for every product and process, and this will be no simple task. Such development will require access to expertise, educational programs, and research. To address the need for these resources, the International Meat and Poultry HACCP alliance was created.

On March 25, 1994, a developmental meeting was held at Texas A&M University to finalize details that led to the formation of the Alliance. The representatives present at the meeting agreed that there is a strong need for a uniform program to assure safer meat and poultry products, and they supported the development of the HACCP Alliance to meet this need.

The Alliance is comprised of interested industry associations and is affiliated with several federal agencies, universities, and professional societies. Initially called the National Meat and Poultry HACCP Alliance, the organization voted to change its name to International, given the involvement of foreign governments and industry. To date, it is comprised of greater than 70 members, and the membership continues to grow. The Alliance includes 21 industry associations, 10 professional associations, 31 universities, and 10 service groups. Several government agencies are cooperators and advisors to the Alliance. They include the Food Safety and Inspection Service and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service of USDA; the Centers for Disease Control; the Food and Drug Administration; the Texas Department of Health; the U.S. Army Natick Research; Development and Training Center; and the USDA Cooperative Extension Service. International cooperators are also involved, including Agriculture Canada’s Food Production and Inspection Branch; the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association; the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food of England; New Zealand’s Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries; Mexico’s Animal Health Program; and the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service.

The Alliance is headquartered in Texas A&M University’s Center for Food Safety, which is housed in the newly-established Institute of Food Science and Engineering. While much of the initial activity will be conducted at Texas A&M, the 31 universities involved in the alliance will assist in training and education.

The official mission of the Alliance is to implement farm-to-table HACCP systems to ensure safer meat and poultry products. The goals are threefold. First, to provide a mechanism of training, research, and evaluation to ensure proper and effective implementation of HACCP. Second, the Alliance hopes to provide industry (from farm to retail) with an affordable program and incentive to encourage early adoption and implementation of HACCP into its operations. Third, the Alliance will serve as a communicator of HACCP and its role in food safety throughout the food chain to all food sectors, including the general public.

The Alliance aims to address all segments of the meat and poultry industry, from farm to table. The audience would include beef, pork, poultry, and sheep slaughter and processing operations, on-farm and preharvest facilities, such as farms, ranches, and feedyards, distribution activities, such as transportation and storage, food service operations, including fast food operations and the hotel and restaurant industry, the retail segment, such as grocery stores and wholesale clubs, and the consumer. The Alliance’s strategy is to first provide HACCP training and ongoing, hands-on assistance to meat and poultry plants, followed by HACCP training for on-farm production operations, and for the retail and food industries.

On July 29th of last year, the Alliance voted to establish nine committees to address various aspects of the Alliance goals. The committees include: a Training/Curriculum Committee to determine and recommend training needs for employees involved in HACCP; a HACCP Expert Committee to define and identify HACCP experts at various levels; a Scientific Advisory Committee, to review and advise the board on research proposals, grants, surveys and other scientific and research activities; an Evaluation Committee to address and recommend guidelines to verify that HACCP plans have met appropriate and government-mandated requirements; a Certification Committee to review the possibility of an industry-wide certification program and to develop appropriate requirements; a Membership Committee to explore membership recruiting and Alliance fund raising; a Marketing/Communications Committee established to implement communications and information programs on Alliance activities for members and others; an Information Management Committee to address the use of various data banks and information sources for research and making Alliance activities and materials accessible; and a Nominating Committee responsible for recommending individuals for the board of directors.

A major responsibility of the Alliance has been to develop a standardized meat and poultry HACCP curriculum. A curriculum has been developed for the introductory HACCP course, as well as a curriculum for an "Executive HACCP" seminar, which is focused on introducing the concept of HACCP to company management and securing their commitment to the HACCP concept. The curricula for both have been approved by the board, and the Alliance is proceeding to schedule these courses. The first courses should occur in late spring/early summer of this year. In addition, the Alliance is developing a "training the trainer" course, aimed at training individuals to be instructors in HACCP training courses. Earlier this year, the introductory HACCP course curriculum was utilized in a course sponsored by the Alliance in conjunction with the Meat Industry College of the Texas Agricultural Extension Service. Dane Bernard of the NFPA and Nick Nickelson of the NLSMB were involved in the presentation of this course which received very positive responses from the participants.

Certification programs, including standardized exams, are being developed for those who complete accredited courses. A component of the Alliance, such as the American Meat Science Association and the Institute of Food Technologists will develop such exams, and be responsible for their evaluation. By the use of such programs, the Alliance can not only certify completion of the program, but also assure a consistent degree of knowledge of HACCP of those individuals who are certified. The Alliance will be active in promoting the HACCP certification program throughout the food industry.

While HACCP training and aiding industry in the development of HACCP plans is an important function of the Alliance, it is only the first step in the practical application of HACCP. To complement training and development programs, the Alliance is establishing a verification program designed to review and evaluate in-plant HACCP plans to verify that they are working properly and meeting FSIS regulations. As a result, potential problems with in-plant HACCP programs can be identified and corrected before they become a concern of FSIS. The Alliance board feels that it is crucial for FSIS and the Alliance to work closely together to standardize verification procedures.

A service of the Alliance will be the development of a compendium of generic HACCP models. Such models can serve as a guide to aid industry in the development of plans for specific products and processes. The Alliance has submitted a proposal to the USDA for the development of generic HACCP models. This proposal is currently under review by the agency.

The Alliance is involved in the identification and development of a compendium of HACCP experts. This compendium will provide companies with ready access to recognized experts in HACCP to aid in the development of their own HACCP programs.

A priority of the communications effort of the HACCP Alliance is to reach industry groups with information about the Alliance, and about HACCP and the value of its implementation throughout the entire food production chain. The communications committee has recently released the second Alliance alert and has so far issued and distributed three news releases. Because the dissemination of HACCP information is so important, the Alliance has encouraged the copying and general distribution of its newsletters and news releases to all of those interested in HACCP and food safety.

In addition to other communications efforts, the Alliance has sought to sponsor scientific symposia as a forum to provide exposure for research into food safety which directly effects HACCP programs and the safety of the food supply. To date the Alliance has sponsored two scientific symposia. The first, a HACCP symposium, was held on December 2 of last year in conjunction with the Texas branch of the American Society for Microbiology and Texas A&M’s Center for Food Safety. The symposium included the presentation of seminars and research projects related to food safety issues in the meat and poultry industry. The second symposium was held on January 9th and 10th of this year and was co-sponsored by USDA, the Farm Foundation, the Food Safety Consortium, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Veterinary Medical Association, the Food Marketing Policy Center of the University of Connecticut, and the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development of Iowa State University. The symposium, entitled "Tracking Foodborne Pathogens from Farm to Table: Data Needs to Evaluate Control Options," included discussions on topics such as: foodborne disease case data, the identification of high-risk consumers using medical and consumption data, pathogen identification on the farm and impact of farm management strategies, data needs in development of microbial food safety systems for slaughter, processing and distribution, risk assessment for microbial hazards, and the economics of regulation and information.

A current project of the Alliance is the development of a Food Safety database system. The database will enable Alliance members and others to access current food safety information from the United States and around the world. Using the Internet system and the MOSAIC browser, the Alliance staff will set up and manage the system via a home page on the Internet. This home page or station will provide user friendly access to huge data bases such as NIH, USDA, and those available at universities. What information cannot be located in existing data bases will be scanned into the system by Alliance staff. Using the information generated from the food safety database system, the Alliance staff and its members will: issue monitoring reports quarterly which will attempt to forecast key hot-spots that require monitoring; prepare white papers on key subjects, as needed, using expertise from the Alliance membership; monitor research projects on food safety; track all HACCP generic models; track all HACCP training activities in the U.S.; and generate reports for use by key industry research committees that address the highest priority research needs of the industry.

The final form of the FSIS HACCP regulation will have a major impact on the meat and poultry industries. With the recent release of the proposed regulation, the Alliance is in the process of forming a committee to perform a technical review of the proposal. The Alliance will be able to respond to the USDA on the strengths and weaknesses of the regulation during the 120-day review period.

With its current and future programs, the International Meat and Poultry HACCP Alliance intends to fulfill its mission to help ensure safer meat and poultry products through the implementation of HACCP systems from farm to table and to provide the tools necessary to meet the food safety challenges faced by the food industry today and in the future.