SALISBURY, Md. – Poultry producer Perdue Farms said Tuesday it has signed an agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) where it will provide training and assistance to its chicken producers to help reduce pollution.

The company said it is expanding a program started on Maryland’s Eastern Shore to all of its processors. The effort will eventually cover more than 1,600 producers in the southeast and mid-Atlantic regions.

Perdue reportedly said its poultry processing facilities will also implement an environmental management system.

Source: Associated Press

CHICAGO – Registration has opened for the North American Meat Processors Association’s (NAMP) 2009 Meat Industry Management Conference.

The conference will be held at Chicago’s Drake Hotel on March 27 through 29.

The organization said that this year’s theme is “Embracing change: lead, follow, or get out of the way!”

The conference will have more than 26 presenters on a variety of topics and will include a mini-conference on E. coli O157:H7 on the day before the conference begins. Presenters include Dr. Dan Engeljohn of the Food Safety and Inspection Service, Ron Krivosik of Levy Restaurants, Scott Lively of Dakota Beef Co., Bill Christenson of Ed Miniat Inc. and NAMP Past President Jon Rocke of the Smithfield RMH Food Group.

Those interested in attending can get more information and register at www.namp.com.

Source: North American Meat Processors Association

WASHINGTON – The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) on Monday released Notice 105-08, a reissuance of Notice 86-07, which details the sampling code procedures for its enhanced E. coli O157:H7 testing program for raw ground beef.

The new risk-based sampling program reportedly takes into account establishment volume and whether the establishment has had any FSIS or Agriculture Marketing Service positive results within the past 120 days.

Under this program, inspection program personnel can reportedly expect to collect a minimum of four samples and up to 24 samples annually. Known as the MT43 program, it is independent of the MT44 follow-up testing, which results from an establishment being implicated in an E. coli O157:H7-positive production lot.

To view this notice, go to http://www.fsis.usda.gov/OPPDE/rdad/FSISNotices/105-08.pdf.

Source: American Meat Institute