Livestock-product recall alerts move online and ease compliance

Recall warnings for unsafe livestock products are moving online while lightening testing, training and paperwork requirements for businesses. The rules taking effect Aug. 11 limit the notice channel to a defined group of online publishers.

Operators ordered to announce an emergency recall previously had to use a general daily newspaper registered for national distribution. Under the amended Enforcement Decree of the Livestock Products Sanitary Control Act, they may instead use an eligible internet newspaper published by a company issuing such a daily or by its affiliate.

Operators must also ask the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety to place notices on an information-system-linked website. The ministry can decline to post or halt a notice if the product has been fully recovered or its use-by date has passed.

Sampled livestock-product results can be sent immediately when an operator provides an email address and mobile number on the sampling receipt. Previously, unsuitable results were notified in writing, while suitable results required a disclosure request that took about 10 days.

For businesses pursuing HACCP certification, required training for operators and farmers falls from at least four hours to two hours, while employee training declines from at least 24 hours to 16 hours. The score for exemption from the following year's assessment drops to 90 percent from 95 percent.

For processed livestock products, foreign-material and sensory checks move from every production lot to at least monthly by product type, and an incoming raw-material test overlapping HACCP receiving checks is deleted. The ministry will pursue a legal amendment to let government sampling and testing results count toward self-quality testing.