Under a new rule proposed by the USDA’s Food Safety & Inspection Service, facilities that process egg products will have to develop and implement “hazard analysis and critical control point (HACCP) systems” in an effort to modernize safety processes in the egg industry.
HACCP systems are designed to be preemptive, identifying and dealing with biological, chemical, and physical risks up front rather than relying on inspections of the finished product to detect contamination or other safety hazards.
The goal of the new rule is to bring egg-safety measures in line with those required for meat and poultry products, says Feedstuffs. It also would give egg facilities the flexibility to tailor a safety plan to their specific needs and, in theory, “the incentive to innovate new means to achieve enhanced food safety.”
The egg industry supports the proposed rule, according to Feedstuffs, and implementation costs are expected to be offset somewhat by the fact that most facilities already have HACCP systems in place for at least part of their processes.
There will be a 120-day period for comment once the rule is published in the Federal Register.