On Oct. 22, AAMP and the Illinois Association of Meat Processors hosted a roundtable discussion in Rockford, Illinois along with three FSIS staff members from Washington, D.C. FSIS staff members Hany Z. Sidrak, DVM, Deputy Assistant Administrator Office of Field Operations, Jeff Canavan, Deputy Director Labeling and Program Delivery Staff and Meryl Silverman, Office of Policy and Program Development, offered important updates to those in attendance and covered a variety of topics. Below are some of the highlights.
FSIS’ newest version will be out early in 2020. Processors should have a year from that date to be in compliance. Significant changes have been made to the 2017 version due to the comments, discussions and the science being brought to the table by the industry work groups that we put together. Part of the pre-convention workshop next summer in Des Moines will feature Dr. Jeff Sindelar and Bob Hanson, both members of our working group on the scientific studies. They will break down and simplify the new documents to help our members apply it to their everyday practices.