On September 19, 2017, USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) issued a notice requiring inspection personnel to notify establishments in hurricane-affected areas to reassess their hazard plans to ensure products are unadulterated.

Under FSIS requirements, every establishment must reassess the adequacy of its HACCP plan whenever any changes occur that could affect the hazard analysis or alter the plan. A hurricane is considered such a change.

FSIS inspection personnel will be:

• Verifying whether sanitation procedures and any cleaning and related monitoring are adequate to address any additional sanitation problems related to the hurricanes; and

• Reviewing the establishment’s testing data to identify any adverse trends that may indicate problems with microbial contamination.

In establishments producing ready-to-eat products that were affected by service failures including flooding, prolonged electric service failure and boil water orders, FSIS may schedule risk-based Listeria monocytogenes sampling to verify restoration of sanitary conditions upon re-starting operations.  For additional information click here.