The Further Processors Division of United Egg Association (UEA) provided comments in response to a March 3 announcement by the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS). The agency will begin a phased roll-out to egg products plants, in regard to the Public Health Risk Evaluation (PHRE) and Food Safety Assessment (FSA) methodologies. UEA’s Further Processor Division represents FSIS-regulated processors of egg products in the U.S.

Within the comments, UEA again requested a copy of the audit tool – which has not yet been released – and reiterated the difficulty of commenting on the proposal without the audit tool. The question of HACCP was also mentioned in the comments; this was a major portion of the meat and poultry PHRE and FSA audits as egg regulations do not currently require HACCP. The confidentiality of company-specific protocols and procedures were also noted as a major industry concern that FSIS should address. In conclusion, UEA asked FSIS for another opportunity to comment again once the audit tool was developed and released and the agency held a webinar with all stakeholders to better explain the process.