U.S.-Canada Meat Pre-Clearance Pilot to Begin in September
The Food Safety and Inspection Service and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) are reviewing data to begin the process of selecting CFIA-registered establishments that may be eligible for the FSIS-CFIA pre-clearance pilot program, and the pilot is set to begin in September, CFIA said. The pilot project, part of the Beyond the Border Action Plan, will consider alternative methods for reviewing import documents prior to the shipments' arrival at the U.S. border and alternative methods for release of shipments that are destined for further processing at an FSIS official establishment.
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After completion of the planning stage of the pilot, it will begin operating in September 2012 for one year, CFIA said. It will start with a narrow scope; consisting of a small number of CFIA-registered establishments, which may vary in size, that export fresh meat (beef and pork) products directly to FSIS-inspected establishments for further processing. Considerations for future pre-clearance processes for meat will be based on analysis of the results of this pilot after its conclusion in September 2013.
The criteria for establishments to be eligible to participate in the pilot project are:
- Conduct regular business across the U.S.-Canada border.
- Consistent compliance history that demonstrates sound food safety and system controls.
- No public health violations reported by FSIS at the port-of-entry (POE). CFIA-registered establishments that have public health related (i.e., microbiological or chemical residue) POE violations since the start of 2010, will not be eligible for inclusion.
- Ability to demonstrate control of the flow of product when necessary, as reflected in a clean compliance rate for presenting product to FSIS (i.e., no FSIS-documented failure to present).
According to CFIA, shipments of product from establishments that participate in the pilot project, and are not pre-assigned to be sampled at the import establishment, are cleared to continue to their destination establishment where physical examination of the shipment may occur, if selected. This physical examination includes zero tolerance checks for fecal material and ingesta. Shipments of product from participating establishments may be required to stop at the official import inspection facility where samples are collected, CFIA said. Because the documentation associated with the shipment would already be reviewed (i.e., pre-cleared), the intact shipment would move to the destined processing establishment after the samples are collected, while they are analyzed. Pending the receipt of a non-violative result, the shipment would remain under the control of the importer until the sample results are received. The current import re-inspection process will not change for CFIA-registered establishments not participating in the pilot program.
Foreign Agricultural Service fact sheet on the pilot available here.