September 19, 2008

An inspection by three groups of specialists from Russia's food safety agencies has found that processing conditions at US poultry plants failed to conform to Russian standards. 

Three groups of specialists from Rosselkhoznadzor (Russia's Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance) carried out inspections of US poultry processing enterprises for slaughtering, dressing, deep-freezing and storing of chicken and turkey meat.

In total, 39 US establishments were inspected, of which 19 enterprises were excluded from the list of enterprises approved by Rosselkhoznadzor for poultry export into the Russian Federation since September 1, 2008.

At most enterprises, the Russian inspectors revealed cases of non-conformity to the requirements of the Russian legislation, according to the report.

The report continues that Russian specialists revealed gross violations of poultry processing and dressing technology. For example, the temperature of turkey meat after cooling reached 20 deg C instead of 4 deg C as stated by the standard, which will lead to increase of bacterial contamination and reduction of realization period.

The violations revealed by the Russian specialists were registered, filed and sent to Rosselkhoznadzor, which later made a decision to exclude some poultry processing establishments from the list of enterprises approved by that organization for poultry exports to the Russian Federation.