Compliance with the Food Safety Modernisation Act (FSMA) and additions to the Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) were discussed at the USPoultry Feed Mill Management Seminar in Nashville earlier this week.

Speaking at the conference, Brad Tipton of Pilgrim’s (pictured) said: “In your food safety plan, for every hazard that you have detailed or every area that you feel needs to have some measurement, you need to build control procedures.”

He noted that as part of the new rules for the GMP, feed mill managers are now mandated to maintain a written food safety plan, which must include a hazard analysis and preventive controls.

He also reminded the managers of the importance of retaining proper hazard, maintenance and standard operating procedure records.

“In the eyes of inspectors, if you did not write it down, you did not do it!” he stated.

Dr Henry Turlington, director of quality & manufacturing regulatory affairs for the American Feed Industry Association, provided an overview of FMSA and the impact on feed mills.

Dr Turlington observed that the new law applies to all ingredient processing, all feed manufacturing, pet food, transportation, and feed and ingredient imports, remarking: “current good manufacturing practices are good business practices.”

He stressed the need to start with a process flow diagram, organize documents to meet needs, verify and validate current good manufacturing practices and identify hazards and preventive controls.

In his presentation, “Truck Regulations and the Effect on the Industry,” Tommy Pollard, corporate director of fleet safety at Perdue, provided a DOT regulatory update for truck and vehicle based safety.

He discussed several proposed and final regulatory rulings that will affect drivers. Pollard also emphasized the importance of facilities having a clearly defined goal they would like to achieve through their vehicle based safety systems and ensuring that technology implementation adds value and lessens risk exposure.