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USDA's
Food Safety and Inspection Service will hold a public meeting
in early April to discuss the algorithm the agency plans
to use to compute risk-based inspection levels for meat-processing
establishments.
The initiative, which FSIS is rolling out at 30 pilot sites
in April, essentially seeks to deploy FSIS inspection forces
where they are needed most, in accordance with the food-safety
risks inherent in a product and process, as well as the
protocols in place to mitigate those risks.
Although the initiative has been endorsed by several industry
groups, including the National Meat Association, others,
including the American Meat Institute, are concerned about
how FSIS will weigh some of the factors that determine a
plant's risk.
The meeting, to be held April 2, from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00
p.m. at George Mason University — Arlington Campus, in Fairfax,
Va., is consistent with what FSIS Under Secretary Richard
Raymond vowed would be a "transparent process" as the initiative
is deployed. In an upcoming interview in the April edition
of Meatingplace In Print , he explains
that "the overall number of daily inspections will remain
the same. The difference is, one plant may be subject to
three inspections, another to two, rather than both being
subject to two-and-a-half."
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