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HR 2749 requires all Facility's to do HACCP- It PASSED !!!

PORKER

Well-known member
Agrestal Vestige and ScoringHACCP (division of ScoringAg) Announce A Partnership - HACCP, Food Safety and Traceability Issues in the Agricultural Industry

NewswireToday - /newswire/ - Sargent, GA, United States, 07/03/2009 - Announcing the partnership of Agrestal Vestige and ScoringHACCP and their plans for targeting food safety hazards encompassing the whole of the agricultural industry.


Dr. Dwayne Hubbard announces a direct partnership between his company, Agrestal Vestige, and ScoringHACCP, which is a division of ScoringAg, Inc. of Bradenton, Florida.

The decisional concomitant in melding the two entities, Agrestal Vestige and ScoringHACCP, has been based on the increased demands currently and commonly arising from the agricultural industry in the realm of regulatory compliance and Food Safety.

With the occurrence of food recalls being more commonplace now than ever before in history, a more comprehensive system needs to be implemented that is capable of addressing such issues as SSOP (Sanitation Standard Operating Procedures), HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point) and item-level traceability in a way that regulated establishments can promptly respond to failures within their processes that have inevitably resulted in a food safety hazard being realized. Such a system has been recently designed by Dr. Dwayne Hubbard for ScoringAg's new venture, www.ScoringHACCP.com .

ScoringAg, Inc. ( www.scoringAg.com ) has had a long and productive history in addressing item-level traceability within the agricultural industry targeting food safety. Now, with the inclusion of their newly developed proprietary HACCP database, regulated establishments will be able to successfully maintain their records within the same secured, governmentally compliant, global system, thereby enabling them to severely decrease, if not actually eliminate, the potential for sanitary issues and food safety hazards (biological, chemical, or physical) being introduced into commerce. Or, by being able to rapidly retrieve any adulterated products that have been, and quickly diagnose the actual failure within their process.

With Dr. Dwayne Hubbard of Agrestal Vestige( www.agrestalvestige.com ) being the longtime authority encompassing red-meat and poultry SSOP & HACCP, as well as Bio-Security and Agri-Terrorism, working in conjunction with Mr. William Kanitz of the ScoringHACCP corporation, their food industry clients may feel confident that they will be working with two entities that throughly understand the regulatory agricultural industry completely.

If you would like additional information, please feel free to visit their websites to contact them directly.
 

PORKER

Well-known member
Feds tightening US food safety standards

(AP via SFGate.com) – New safety standards aimed at reducing salmonella and E. coli outbreaks are part of a government effort to try to make food safer to eat.

A food safety panel established by President Barack Obama developed the new rules for eggs, poultry, beef, leafy greens, melons and tomatoes as well as for better coordination and communication among the agencies overseeing the nation's food supply.

The panel was to announce Tuesday that the Food and Drug Administration and the Agriculture Department would adopt the standards, which follow a string of breakdowns in food safety.

Earlier this year a massive salmonella outbreak in peanut products sickened hundreds, was suspected of causing nine deaths and led to one of the largest product recalls in U.S. history. In the past month, Nestle Toll House cookie dough and 380,000 pounds of beef produced by the JBS Swift Beef Co. of Greeley, Colo., have been recalled due to connections with outbreaks of E. coli.

In March, Obama said he would create a special advisory group to coordinate antiquated food safety laws and recommend ways to update them. The FDA does not have enough money or workers to conduct annual inspections at more than a fraction of the 150,000 food processing plants and warehouses in the country, Obama said.

Under the new rules:

_The FDA will help the food industry establish better tracing systems to track the origins of a bacterial outbreak.FDA's Responsibilities Include:
Fish and seafood, bottled water, plant products (fruits, vegetables, nuts), dairy products (milk, cheese, shell eggs), canned foods, bakery goods, snack food, and candy, grain-based products (cereals, bread, flour), game meats
Dietary supplements, food ingredients, infant formula
Pet food, food-producing animals, animal feed
Cosmetics

_A new network will be established to help the many agencies that regulate food safety to communicate better.

_Egg and poultry producers will have to follow new standards designed to reduce salmonella contamination.On all flocks over 3000 birds

_The Food Safety Inspection Service, the Agriculture Department agency that inspects meat, will increase sampling of ground beef ingredients in an effort to better find E. coli contamination.

_The FDA will recommend ways that producers of leafy greens, melons and tomatoes can reduce disease strains, and require stricter standards in those industries within two years.

_The FDA and the Agriculture Department also will create new positions to better oversee food safety.
The Agriculture Department inspects meat and poultry, and shares inspections of eggs with the FDA. The FDA inspects most other foods, but at least 15 government agencies are a part of the food safety system.
 

PORKER

Well-known member
The new FSIS director from USDA will also be confronting a pathogen less dangerous than E. coli O157, but also much more prevalent: Campylobacteriosis.

Campylobacteriosis is one of the most common food-borne illnesses. It infects about 2.4 million people per year in the U.S.. the CDC reckons. It’s usually highly unpleasant but not life-threatening. The CDC lists “diarrhea, cramping, abdominal pain, and fever” as common symptoms, adding “The diarrhea may be bloody and can be accompanied by nausea and vomiting.” Ouch. It usually clears up within a week, but in people with “compromised immune systems, Campylobacter occasionally spreads to the bloodstream and causes a serious life-threatening infection.”

Most campylobacteriosis cases can be tied to factory animal farms, according to a study by US and UK researchers published last year in Plos Genetics last year (summary here). More than half of cases come from CAFO-grown chicken, while more than a third came from feedlot beef, the researchers found.

And now a new study, this one by researchers at the University of Bristol, England, finds that the level of campylobacteriosis (and salmonella) found in chicken meat is directly related to the level of stress experienced by the birds.

According to a summary of the study on MeatProcess, the researchers found that the animals “released higher levels of hormone noradrenalin when under stress which actually helps Campylobacter and Salmonella grow and spread more quickly.” Moreover, “A further finding from the study said Campylobacter can interact with other organisms in the gut of food animals, making it even more invasive.”

Apparently, the relationship between stress and Campylobacter had already been established. According to MeatProcess, previous research had already fingered the incredibly stressful process of transporting chickens from factory farms to factory slaughter facilities, when they are packed tightly together in cages and trucked down the highway. In a previous study, transport had been shown to cause “up to a tenfold increase in terms of Campylobacter concentration in the guts of animals and a doubling of the numbers infected,” the news service reports.
 

PORKER

Well-known member
Most campylobacteriosis cases can be tied to factory animal farms, according to a study by US and UK researchers published last year in Plos Genetics last year (summary here). More than half of cases come from CAFO-grown chicken, while more than a third came from feedlot beef, the researchers found.
 

PORKER

Well-known member
The H.R. 2749 legislation is credited to Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich. Dingell has adopted some provisions offered by his colleagues as well as lobbying groups such as the Grocery Manufacturers Association.

"(This will) go a long way to comforting our consumers and boosting their confidence in the safety of our nation's food supply, particularly the stuff coming in from abroad," said Dingell, who last year was unseated by Waxman as the panel's chairman.

House leaders set the technically complex food-safety bill for approval by voice vote, a procedure usually reserved for noncontroversial measures. The procedure doesn't allow for any floor amendments and requires a two-thirds vote to pass.

The Senate still must approve its own legislation, and House and Senate negotiators will have to resolve their differences.

House provisions include:

-Food producing and processing facilities already must register with the FDA. The bill stiffens this requirement to mandate annual registration renewal, as well as payment of a new $500 registration fee.

-Food facilities must prepare a "hazard analysis" and develop food safety plans. An estimated 360,000 facilities nationwide face FDA inspections under the bill.

-The FDA could impose a quarantine of a geographic area in order to stop shipment of potentially contaminated food. This causes concern among agricultural groups and their Capitol Hill allies, who are hoping to revise the provision.

"Quarantine language that would shut down an entire region should be unnecessary," Rep. George Radanovich, R-Calif., said during House Energy and Commerce consideration, warning of risks to "innocent producers, packers and distributors in the region (faced) with the stigma of a quarantine."
 

RobertMac

Well-known member
Most here don't think this will effect them, but it is the next step to eliminate producer's access to the food marketplace and making us totally dependent on large food processing corporations.
 

PORKER

Well-known member
Food Safety Bill Fails in House Vote
Democratic Leadership Vows to Try Again; Opponents Say Process Was Too Rushed


By Lyndsey Layton
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 29, 2009; 4:56 PM

The House of Representatives narrowly defeated a bill Wednesday aimed at toughening food safety laws, but House leaders say they will try again in the coming days.

Because it was brought to the floor under special rules, the bill required 286 votes, or a two-thirds majority, to pass. But it fell six votes short, with 280 voting in favor and 150 opposed.

Opponents, including Minority Leader Rep. John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), complained that the process had been rushed and that Democratic leaders produced three different versions of the bill on the day of the vote.

"This may be a great bill, but I have no idea," Boehner said. "We're considering it here in the House under a procedure where there is a whopping 40 minutes of debate and no amendments. It's a major food safety bill and nobody gets to offer amendments, nobody gets to debate and nobody knows what's in the bill."

The bill is strongly supported by the White House and a raft of consumer groups, as well as some major industry trade groups such as the Grocery Manufacturers of America. But it has faced vocal opposition from some farm interests, and several Republican members of the House Agriculture Committee said it would burden farmers and ranchers and create new federal bureaucracy without improving food safety.

Nancy Donely, who began lobbying for stronger food laws after her son died from eating hamburger meat contaminated with E. coli 0157, said, "This is a slap in the face to all consumers and is especially offensive to families who have had loved ones die from unsafe food. Once again, special interest groups were successful in pushing their agendas onto spineless members of Congress."

Hill sources said Democratic leaders were likely to reintroduce the bill Thursday under regular rules, which would open it to amendments but require a simple majority for passage.


A Senate version sponsored by Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) has bipartisan support.

The House bill places significant new responsibility on farmers and food processors to prevent contamination before it occurs. It would require food growers and processors to identify the particular contamination risks they face, create controls to prevent contamination, monitor those controls, test to make sure they are working and update those measures regularly.

The House bill gives the FDA new power to set safety standards for growing and processing food and requires it to sharply increase inspections and enforcement. Currently, the FDA inspects food facilities about once a decade. The legislation would require FDA to inspect high-risk facilities at least every 18 months and low-risk facilities at least every three years. An estimated 360,000 facilities would be subject to inspection.

The bill also gives the FDA significant authority aimed at containing outbreaks of food-borne illnesses. The agency would be able to mandate the recall of a food if it suspects contamination, instead of relying on the food maker to voluntarily call back tainted products.
 

PORKER

Well-known member
Consumers Union Praises House Passage of 2749 Food Safety Enhancement Act Today after yesterdays loss

WASHINGTON, D.C.-Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports magazine, today applauded members of the U.S. House of Representatives for approving a historic bill to overhaul the nation's food-safety system, the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009 ("FSEA," H.R. 2749).

The House approved the bill by a vote of 283-142.
Jean Halloran, Consumers Union's campaign director for food safety, said, "This is a major milestone towards making our food safer and repairing our badly broken food-safety system. Consumers want to trust that the food they eat-no matter where it comes from-won't harm them. We appreciate the hard work of Congress to move forward to assure that consumers will have safe, affordable and sustainably produced food. This bill will go a long way to prevent a repeat of deadly contaminations like the salmonella-laced peanut butter that caused hundreds of illnesses and nine deaths earlier this year."

Consumers Union has long advocated for measures contained in the FSEA to improve food safety by giving the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) the authority to recall contaminated food, requiring FDA to inspect high-risk facilities at least every six months to a year, and enacting other critical reforms, citing the string of serious food-borne illnesses linked to peanut butter, spinach, peppers, and other common foods.

Ami Gadhia, policy counsel for Consumers Union, said, "This bill will make a fundamental difference in keeping our food safe and our families safe. This reform is long overdue, and we're optimistic that the momentum is building for these changes to finally become law. We commend the House leadership for taking action and finding common ground on food safety. We hope the Senate will act promptly to pass a similarly stronger bill after the recess."
 

PORKER

Well-known member
Recieved this from headquarters on HR2749


ScoringAg is the only complete recordkeeping and traceback system for the Government mandated Food-Safety Bills H.R. 2749 and upcoming S 510 and S 425

ScoringAg provides traceback software to the supply chain for the application of intelligent label codes called SSI-EID

www.ScoringAg.com is the only working standardized recordkeeping and traceback system, operating worldwide in different languages, for every food-handler, with more then 1800 agriculture products including, ingredients, commingled products, GAP, GMP, SSOP, and HACCP (www.ScoringHACCP.com) records for all food-handling facilities including importer, exporter, broker, transporter.

FDA requires now a 24-hour traceback to each person who grows, produces, manufactures, processes, packs, transports, stores or sells agricultural commodities, food, feed or feed ingredients associated with a product-safety incident.

ScoringAg electronic recordkeeping system makes traceback seamlessly easy as the records move electronically from one owner to the next. FDA requires a standardized, electronic recordkeeping system, that’s what ScoringAg has had for years. An archiving system for the required 3 year storage of electronic records is already built in.

ScoringAg is the only system where PDF 417 and 2D data-matrix plus intelligent traceback codes (SSI-EID) are created in the database for every single product and easy print out as an unique identifier, whether pallet, case, or item-level is required.


Don’t take a risk, reduce on-site FDA inspections by using ScoringAg electronic recordkeeping system and avoid fines. For unintentional violations, the maximum fine will be $20,000 for individuals and $250,000 for companies, with an overall cap of $50,000 for individuals and $1million for companies in a single proceeding (event).

ScoringAg makes it easy – secure – fast – and inexpensive for every body in the food chain to comply with the new law.

Call us for more information on implementation procedure or just sign up online. Click on open an account in www.ScoringAg.com

Site-Specific Recordkeeping®

Point-to-Point Traceback™

ScoringSystem, Inc

www.ScoringAg.com

+ 941-792-6405



Link to: http://www.rules.house.gov/111/LegText/111_hr2749_txt.pdf
 

PORKER

Well-known member
Read this posting of a mad Consumer;

I'm not a lawyer. Just an outraged food consumer who has looked in the eyes of beings dying from adulterated food through no fault of their own and will never ever forget it.

Many of our USDA/FDA food safety regulations are currently being made or sponsored by huge global industrial food corporations whose primary concern
is commodity profit, not food safety.
Just look at the mish-mash governing all consumers' one food supply to benefit the peculiarities of these billion dollar corporations. E. coli and Salmonella classifications would seem to fit that mold.

To make progress in consumers war for safer food, as safe as humanly possible, it has to become more costly economically for giant industrial food producers to sicken 76 million and kill 5,000 food consumers each and every year. The money fines and jail time imposed on food growers, processors, and even retailers of adulterated foods have to be increased to the point that the costs to these companies are no longer worth the profits of adulterated food.

Until then the body count in the consumer safe food war is over 5,000 a year and rising. Until then the focus of food production will remain making the maximum buck, not safer food. Consumer demand for safer food and lawyers making changes to the food safety system are our best hopes.
 

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