Meat Hygiene Directive: 2013-22

Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0Y9

May 17, 2013

Subject: Chapter 4: Annex O: Policy on the Control of E. coli O157 H7/NM Contamination in Raw Beef Products.

Please replace Annex O, Chapter 4 in your Manual of Procedures. The important highlights of the revised version are as follows:

Section 3: New definitions have been added and a few previous definitions have been modified;

Section 5.1.1: Control measures for abattoirs have been clarified;

Section 5.4 and 5.5: CFIA Risk-based sampling of precursor material (sampling plan M218) and CFIA verification sampling of finished raw ground beef products (sampling plan M201) have been included and new requirements for operator's follow up to E. coli O157 positives under sampling plan M201 have been introduced;

Section 5.7: Requirements for production of non intact raw beef products have been further clarified. New requirements for labelling of mechanically tenderized beef have been described;

Section 5.9: Requirements for beef products processed for raw consumption have been described;

Section 12: Scope of implicated products and product disposition have been further clarified;

Section 13: Concept of process awareness has been introduced and its requirements described;

Section 14 and Appendix 3: Requirements to identify and act in case of High Event Period have been clarified; and

Appendix 2:
Testing with both screening and confirmation methodologies must be performed in a lab accredited by the Standards Council of Canada (SCC), the Canadian Association for Laboratory Accreditation (CALA), or another accreditation body that is a signatory to the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) as conforming to the requirements of ISO/IEC 17025:2005 for specific tests;

Revised policy will be effective on the date of publication.

Operators of registered establishments will be required to reassess and realign their HACCP System including all pertinent process controls, within 45 days of the publication of this revised policy.

Please also note that Section 8 and Appendix 1 in relation to the validation of pathogen reduction step(s) at the abattoir are currently under revision to ensure we provide the best guidance available. Until completion of the review, the requirement to gather data for step 3 of the validation will not be implemented. Once CFIA has completed this review, Annex O will be updated accordingly.

English Version:

Please replace Annex O in your Manual of Procedures, Chapter 4 with the attached annex.

French Version:

Please replace Annex O in your Manual of Procedures, Chapter 4 with the attached annex.

Parthiban Muthukumarasamy
Director
Meat Programs Division

att.