Will USDA Put Your Venison Processor Out of Business?

[fasteddie]

Big Brother is on the prowl and he wants to put the little guy out of business !

[scotman]

ORIGINAL: Ben Sobieck

Would new proposed USDA testing requirements have put the small country meat processors who hunters often employ to butcher their wild game out of business?

Read the story here.

If you are a (for-sale) meat processing plant - forsale means you sell meat to the public then you are already under the USDA regulation and required to have a USDA inspector at the plant. I have not read or seen the new regulations slated but what it sounds like is they will be requiring ecoli testing for wild game meat that is sold to the public at large.

Will this affect the small country meat processor? Well it depends if they already have a processing plant and they sell meat to the public, then one change will be made, they would need to send specimens so many times a week for ecoli testing. I think this will affect big game ranches more because they raise wild game on a larger scale and then process the game to sell to the public.

The small scale processors though which I am one of them are not under the USDA regulations as long as I don't sell meat to the public. I can do all the custom meat processing without restrictions as long as I make it clear that the meat is 'not for sale' on the packaging. If the USDA slates to change notforsale regulation then I would start getting worried.

I'm for the USDA regulation if it only pertains to the selling of wild game meat. Any wild game meat sold to the public should be tested for disease especially when much of that game meat sold online comes from big wild game farms, where wild game related diseases stem from.

[Gulfcapt]

Scotman I have a ???? for you. Even tho you don't sell the meat but process it. wouldn't you still fit under the ecoli specimun testing since you do handle the meat?

ORIGINAL: scotman

ORIGINAL: Ben Sobieck

Would new proposed USDA testing requirements have put the small country meat processors who hunters often employ to butcher their wild game out of business?

Read the story here.

If you are a (for-sale) meat processing plant - forsale means you sell meat to the public then you are already under the USDA regulation and required to have a USDA inspector at the plant. I have not read or seen the new regulations slated but what it sounds like is they will be requiring ecoli testing for wild game meat that is sold to the public at large.

Will this affect the small country meat processor? Well it depends if they already have a processing plant and they sell meat to the public, then one change will be made, they would need to send specimens so many times a week for ecoli testing. I think this will affect big game ranches more because they raise wild game on a larger scale and then process the game to sell to the public.

The small scale processors though which I am one of them are not under the USDA regulations as long as I don't sell meat to the public. I can do all the custom meat processing without restrictions as long as I make it clear that the meat is 'not for sale' on the packaging. If the USDA slates to change notforsale regulation then I would start getting worried.

I'm for the USDA regulation if it only pertains to the selling of wild game meat. Any wild game meat sold to the public should be tested for disease especially when much of that game meat sold online comes from big wild game farms, where wild game related diseases stem from.

[scotman]

Aslong as it's marked not forsale no it doesn't require testing. I do see your point but if we took that a step farther USDA would be in control of any deer processed. Imagine having to send in a specimen of your deer you cut up with your own hands and paying an extra $100-200 for required testing, that is not including the cost of equipment forsale plants are required to have to test blood, tumors and ect..

Deer processors that sell wild game meat are under USDA control now. What they don't have to do is have the forsale game meat tested. From what I gather that is what the USDA is saying through the regulation. That is, if you sell meat of any kind whether wild or domestic it must be tested for disease. 

[Gulfcapt]

I can see where this testing stuff can get expensive quick!!!! I had no Idea what went into meat process testing you shed some light on it for me thanks

[scotman]

The whole article and the way it was presented was a little misleading. The new testing from what I read in another article would increase the testing to a total of 13 tests before processing and 13 tests after processing. I didn't work on the quality control team that performed the testing but much of the blood work is tested at the plant. Then we sent a few cultures out to get tested periodically for ecoli. Any notable tumors where sent out for cancer checks or if the animal had abnormalities. Plus we where required to keep the meat within a certain temperature range with the use of dry ice, if it rose above temperature the meat would then have to be retested and if it came back positive the whole batch of meat would have to be thrown out.

None of this will affect the deer processor that doesn't sell meat but it would greatly affect small processing plants and farm based businesses that sell meat. I do retract my statement that I was for the new USDA regulation 13 tests before and after handling is not realistic. None of this has anything to do with not forsale wild game meat.

Either way 13 test before and after processing is a bit much and will cost a huge amount of money. The only way to recoup the costs would be to raise the price of meat and this will not happen as long as massive processing plants hold control over the prices being set for the consumer.

I use hot water sterilizers, scrappers,rubber boots,rubber apron and alot of hot water to cut down on ecoli. I usually dip and clean my knife about every 5 minutes when processing deer. The biggest thing is keeping your skinning in one separate room, the processing of the meat in a second room and then ofcourse cold storage in it's own room. That way hair and dirt can not possibly containment the meat at different stages of processing deer.

I have plans to build a new meat shop in the next few years but it couldn't possibly be a forsale meat shop. The added expenses of hiring a USDA inspector and the regulations they set would require I would have to slaughter x amount of animals a day to make it worth it.

[Gulfcapt]

scotman shed alittle more lite on this for me if you would! This testing is it required daily, weekly, monthly??????? I hope it not animal by animal testing is it..

[scotman]

It isn't required animal by animal and the testing is done daily at the plant and if I recall correctly the testing was sent out twice a week.  If they required it animal by animal the cost would be phenomenal.

[Gulfcapt]

Thanks for answering my ????? Scotman I appreciate it..

[scotman]

Each plant has a USDA inspector that works with the in house quality control team. The quality control team is hired by the processing plant owner. The QC makes sure the sterilizers are at a certain temperature during the day,swabs for ecoli on known problem areas(bottom of cutting boards where water doesn't dry as quickly) and keeps active daily logs, they do a visual inspection before the plant starts the business day with the USDA inspector. The QC is trained to be liaison for the plant USDA inspectors. They have very similar jobs. If a problem arises you know it came from either the Inspector or the QC. The QC job is to catch and fix problems before the USDA Inspector finds them.