It’s hard to believe that fall is upon us. I am sure many of you are gearing up for or are already neck-deep in wild game processing, depending on where you live in the country. I am looking forward to the milder weather and the opportunity to sit in a tree stand on a cool crisp morning, but there is much to do before that happens.
I want to update you on the progress of some of the regulatory matters that Nelson, AAMP’s outreach specialist, and I have been working on. We just received the final version of the Foreign Materials Best Practices paper that has been a work in progress for a few years now. AAMP has worked with several other industry groups to prepare this document and present it to FSIS as an alternative to a new directive on the subject. The need for this was brought about by the increase in recalls for foreign material contamination over the last several years. There have been many meetings with FSIS, as well as many versions of the document being passed back and forth for review until this final version has been produced to meet everyone’s, including FSIS’, approval. Nelson and I will be working on a version that will give members all the information they need and remove the items that do not pertain to them.