The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service issued emails Sept. 24 announcing changes to Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ) electronic manuals. While some changes are minor, other changes may affect the admissibility of the plant products, including fruits, vegetables, and flowers.
The Codex Committee on Residues of Veterinary Drugs in Foods (CCRVDF) invited member countries and observer organizations to participate in a working group to revise the draft report on performance criteria for multi-residue analytical methods submitted to the 20th CCRVDF for inclusion as an Appendix to the Guidelines for the Design and Implementation of National Regulatory Food Safety Assurance Programmes Associated with the Use of Veterinary Drugs in Food Producing Animals (CAC/GL 71-2009), said the Food Safety and Inspection Service. The working group will also develop a generic validation protocol for these methods for consideration at the next Session of the CCRVDF. The goal of the working group is to have several rounds of comments, with the final document to be circulated by the Codex Secretariat by the end of April 2013. Member countries and observer organizations interested in participating should provide the name(s), official title, and email address of their representative(s) to Dr. Jack Kay (j.kay@vmd.defra.gsi.gov.uk) by Oct. 15.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service issued emails Sept. 20 announcing changes to Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ) electronic manuals. While some changes are minor, other changes may affect the admissibility of the plant products, including fruits, vegetables, and flowers.
The Food Safety and Inspection Service announced a public health alert for raw boneless beef trim products imported from Canada after FSIS testing of the product from Canadian Establishment 38, XL Foods, Inc., confirmed the presence of E. Coli on Sept. 3. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency announced a recall of XL Foods’ ground beef products on Sept. 16 after follow-up testing. The recall has since been expanded.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service issued emails Sept. 19 announcing changes to Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ) electronic manuals. While some changes are minor, other changes may affect the admissibility of the plant products, including fruits, vegetables, and flowers.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service said it changed the port of entry status of the apple ermine moth (Yponomeuta malinellus) to non-actionable. As such, APHIS will no longer regulate apple ermine moth at ports of entry. APHIS said the action is in response to a risk management proposal to deregulate the moth circulated by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency in late July. The National Plant Board concurred with the recommendation. A list of all 48 pests deregulated at the port of entry through the Federally Recognized State Managed Phytosanitary Program is available here.