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| IKE Scenario 03-06: Clarification of the Appeal Process for FSIS Personnel and Industry(Example: Appeal Granted)
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Objective: To provide clarification of the appeal process for FSIS personnel and Industry
You are a GS-9 / IIC assigned to a small establishment that produces fully cooked beef meatballs. Monday afternoon, you perform a scheduled 03G procedure and using a properly calibrated thermometer, you take the temperature of product exiting the oven. You find the temperature to be below that of the critical limit and have concerns that the product may be adulterated. You immediately issue an NR.
Upon receiving the NR, the line foreman appeals the NR and informs you that the temperature was taken at a point prior to where the HACCP plan indicates the CL will be met. The monitoring point of the CCP for checking product temperature in this facility is located down line from the oven because an increase in product temperature (after it exits the oven) is inherent in the process. Consequently, the establishment allows the temperature to equilibrate before taking a final temperature. You respond by asking to see records that verify the CL was met at the correct point. You conclude that there is no reason to believe the product is adulterated or that the HACCP plan was not followed.
Therefore, you grant the line foreman's appeal and enter this into PBIS, changing the procedure result to "A" (performed). You thank the line foreman for bringing this to your attention. You remember that you were taught in FSRE training that the first step in performing a HACCP procedure is to review the HACCP plan before performing the remainder of the procedure.
The key aspect of what occurred in this appeal is that the establishment provided you information that you were not aware of at the time you made your initial decision. Appeals are often resolved by the establishment providing new information either to the inspector or to others in the chain of command.
Email comments to Ike@fsis.usda.gov.
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Last Modified: April 06, 2006 |
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