For use beginning 12/1/2022
VAAFM verification of establishment compliance with Listeria controls is an important food safety verification activity that supports VAAFM’s food safety and public health goals. This directive provides instructions for inspection program personnel (IPP) to verify that establishments that produce post-lethality exposed Ready-to-Eat (RTE) products control Listeria monocytogenes (Lm) through a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) plan or prevent Lm through a Sanitation Standard Operating Procedure (Sanitation SOP) or other prerequisite program. This directive also includes instructions for verifying RTE products that are not post-lethality exposed (e.g., cook-in-bag) are properly classified.
This directive has been revised in its entirety to provide updated instructions to IPP for verifying that meat and poultry establishments are complying with the regulatory requirements of 9 CFR 430.4, Control of Listeria monocytogenes in Post-Lethality Exposed Ready-to-Eat Products (the “Listeria Rule”). The directive has also been revised to reflect changes that were made when the Agency affirmed the interim final Listeria Rule, including clarifying that establishments may not release into commerce product that the establishment collected under its Lm control program and has tested positive for Lm or has been in contact with Lm-contaminated surfaces without reprocessing the product (80 FR 35178). The directive also clarifies how IPP are to verify 9 CFR 417.2(a)(2) compliance for products that are not post-lethality exposed (e.g., cook-in-bag) in response to several recent outbreaks implicating products that were incorrectly classified as not post-lethality exposed. The directive no longer contains supplemental information task tables which were moved to IPP Help, RTE Verification. Instructions concerning sampling of RTE products are contained in a new VT Directive 10,240.3, Ready-to-Eat Sampling Programs. Per 6 V.S.A. § 3305 (8), the federal meat inspection regulations and federal poultry inspection regulations of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Title 9, Code of Federal Regulations, Chapter 3, 9 CFR §§ 300.1 et seq., together with any amendments, supplements, or revisions thereto, are adopted, for the State meat inspection program to operate in an ‘equal to’ status.
KEY POINTS:
• Verifying an establishment’s compliance with the Listeria Rule, 9 CFR 430
• Verifying establishment sampling and testing programs meet the regulatory requirements of the Listeria Rule in both design and execution
VAAFM verification of establishment compliance with Listeria controls is an important food safety verification activity that supports VAAFM’s food safety and public health goals. This directive provides instructions for inspection program personnel (IPP) to verify that establishments that produce post-lethality exposed Ready-to-Eat (RTE) products control Listeria monocytogenes (Lm) through a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) plan or prevent Lm through a Sanitation Standard Operating Procedure (Sanitation SOP) or other prerequisite program. This directive also includes instructions for verifying RTE products that are not post-lethality exposed (e.g., cook-in-bag) are properly classified.
This directive has been revised in its entirety to provide updated instructions to IPP for verifying that meat and poultry establishments are complying with the regulatory requirements of 9 CFR 430.4, Control of Listeria monocytogenes in Post-Lethality Exposed Ready-to-Eat Products (the “Listeria Rule”). The directive has also been revised to reflect changes that were made when the Agency affirmed the interim final Listeria Rule, including clarifying that establishments may not release into commerce product that the establishment collected under its Lm control program and has tested positive for Lm or has been in contact with Lm-contaminated surfaces without reprocessing the product (80 FR 35178). The directive also clarifies how IPP are to verify 9 CFR 417.2(a)(2) compliance for products that are not post-lethality exposed (e.g., cook-in-bag) in response to several recent outbreaks implicating products that were incorrectly classified as not post-lethality exposed. The directive no longer contains supplemental information task tables which were moved to IPP Help, RTE Verification. Instructions concerning sampling of RTE products are contained in a new VT Directive 10,240.3, Ready-to-Eat Sampling Programs. Per 6 V.S.A. § 3305 (8), the federal meat inspection regulations and federal poultry inspection regulations of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Title 9, Code of Federal Regulations, Chapter 3, 9 CFR §§ 300.1 et seq., together with any amendments, supplements, or revisions thereto, are adopted, for the State meat inspection program to operate in an ‘equal to’ status.
KEY POINTS:
• Verifying an establishment’s compliance with the Listeria Rule, 9 CFR 430
• Verifying establishment sampling and testing programs meet the regulatory requirements of the Listeria Rule in both design and execution
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