Mindful that its new guidelines for distributing meat, poultry and egg products could cause difficulties for smaller transportation, distribution and storage companies, the Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has called for comments on those guidelines. In an effort to help shippers strengthen their food safety and security controls, the FSIS issued FSIS Safety and Security Guidelines for the Transportation and Distribution of Meat, Poultry and Egg Products last month. The guidelines, which provide recommendations to ensure the safety and security of food products through all phases of distribution, put special emphasis on points in the transportation and distribution process where potential contaminants could be introduced, including loading and unloading, and in-transit storage.

The proposed guidelines are available at the FSIS Web site, www.fsis.usda.gov/oa/topics/biosecurity.htm. Written comments on the guidelines are due by Oct. 3.