FSIS Finalizes Overhaul of Egg Product Regulations, Including Import Requirements
The Food Safety and Inspection Service is adopting as final an overhaul of its regulations on eggs and egg products, including provisions on imports. Many of the changes align the FSIS egg product regulations with current requirements for meat and poultry, FSIS said. Egg product processing plants will now have to implement Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) systems and sanitation standard operating procedures (SOP). The proposed rule also streamlines egg product labeling regulations, and adds new provisions on imports, including on marking, procedures for imports refused entry and re-importation of egg products returned from foreign countries.
Currently, only Canada and the Netherlands are recognized as having an equivalent egg product system, and have establishments authorized to export egg products to the United States. “FSIS will notify countries either currently eligible to export egg products to the United States (Canada and the Netherlands), or that have requested eligibility to export egg products to the United States, of the new requirements,” it said in the final rule. “Before the effective dates of the HACCP, Sanitation SOP, and other sanitation requirements, these countries will be required to submit an updated Self-Reporting Tool and provide documentation that the country’s laws, regulations, requirements, and procedures meet FSIS’s new HACCP, Sanitation SOP, and other sanitation requirements. FSIS will determine on a case-by-case basis whether currently eligible countries or countries that have requested eligibility have implemented requirements equivalent to this final rule.
“If countries currently shipping egg products do not meet these requirements, FSIS will require that they make necessary changes to be able to continue shipping product,” FSIS said. “For other countries, FSIS will not find their inspection systems equivalent and will not allow them to ship egg products to the United States until they meet necessary requirements.”
Changes to Import Regulations on Marking, Egg Products Refused Entry
Changes to egg product import regulations include the establishment of the identity of inspected and passed imported egg products as domestic products, FSIS said. In general, the changes “align the import requirements for egg products more closely with the import requirements for meat and poultry products.” Other changes to egg product import regulations are as follows:
- Criteria are to be added for when a shipment of egg products may be rejected for container defects, but are otherwise found to be acceptable.
- Official import inspection establishments that re-inspect egg products must meet new sanitation requirements.
- Imported egg products must bear the same mark of inspection applied to imported meat and poultry products.
- Shipping or identification marks are required on the labeling of imported egg product shipping containers.
- Only egg products that have been refused entry into the U.S. solely because of misbranding may be brought into compliance with labeling requirements under agency supervision.
- Re-entry of inspected and passed egg products from foreign countries is permitted if they are not adulterated or misbranded at the time of their return.
- An exemption from foreign export certification and import inspection requirements for imported egg products intended for personal use, display or laboratory analysis is extended from 30 pounds to 50 pounds.
FSIS to Allow Generic Labels for Egg Products
FSIS is aligning its egg product regulations on labeling with those for meat and poultry. Egg products plants, including foreign establishments, must only submit product labels for FSIS approval if the label is intended for temporary approval, for products produced under a religious exemption, for products for export with labeling deviations, or has certain special statements or claims, FSIS said. Egg products plants will be authorized to use generically approved labels and thus would be free to use such labels without submitting them to the agency for approval, provided the label displays all of the required mandatory features in a prominent manner and is not otherwise false or misleading in any particular.
Compliance Dates Staggered Over Two Years
The final rule sets a one-year deadline, until Oct. 29, 2021, for compliance with most of its provisions, including sanitation SOPs. Compliance with new HACCP requirements for egg products will be required two years after the issuance of the final rule, by Oct. 31, 2022.