ScoringAg News: IG Office cites USDA-AMS re COOL Law failures
United States Department of Agriculture, Agriculture Marketing Service pressured to enforce COOL Law now
COOL Law Compliance
According to a September 12, 2011 News Release by ScoringAg: The Office of Inspector General has cited USDA-AMS for not enforcing the COOL Law. All Fish/Shellfish, wild and farm raised including handlers up to retail will be accountable for COOL labeling and traceback recordkeeping for one year.
WE’RE HAVING TROUBLE WITH THE LINKS PROVIDED, SO USE THE www[dot]ScoringAg[dot]com WEBSITE TO LEARN MORE…
The Agricultural Marketing Service includes five commodity programs–Dairy, Fruit and Vegetable, Livestock and Seed, Poultry, and Cotton and Tobacco. The programs provide standardization, grading and market news services for those commodities.
This top-down rule forces all PACA grocers and businesses to tell their suppliers, (Fish/Shellfish, wild and farm raised, processing plants, wholesalers and distributors) that they need proof of records, showing Country of Origin. In this case, ScoringAg has the instant database system for suppliers to use, so that all grocers are compliant.
News Release:
Office of Inspector General has cited USDA-AMS for not enforcing the COOL Law. All Fish/Shellfish, wild and farm raised including handlers up to retail will be accountable for COOL labeling and traceback recordkeeping for one year. This top-down rule forces all PACA grocers and businesses to tell their suppliers, (Fish/Shellfish, wild and farm raised, processing plants, wholesalers and distributors) that they need proof of records, showing Country of Origin. In this case, ScoringAg has the instant database system for suppliers to use, so that all grocers are compliant.
Since affidavits are used in the animal industry a new layer of documentation will be needed for Livestock movements as USDA-AMS has to verify and trace back to the animals verified origin.
Suppliers of covered commodities that are responsible for initiating country of origin claims, including but not limited to growers, distributors, packers, and processors, may use the following for COOL verification:
- ScoringAg traceback records, catch records
- ScoringAg shipping Purchase/Receiving Records
- ScoringAg Harvest Site Records
- ScoringAg database 21CFR part 11. (ADT, or other official, compliant system)
- ScoringAg animal/crop/fish/shellfish Production and method of Harvest/Harvest Records
- ScoringAg shipping records, Bills of Lading/Invoices
Supermarkets have to prove that the fish/shellfish on the shelf at retail comes from a verified source. This now will be required as records needed to prove origin even after harvest has to be presented to AMS for the COOL Law.
USDA’s Office of the Inspector General wondered whatever happened to COOL and found out in an audit, the AMS has been slow to enforce the rule at the retail level since the final rule went into effect in March 2009.
Here are the most significant statements forms the OIG report: http://www.usda.gov/oig/webdocs/01601-04-HY.pdf
Finding 1: AMS Needs to Improve the Retailer Selection Process
Finding 2: AMS Needs to Strengthen Retailer Review Procedures
Finding 3: AMS Needs to Improve the Timeliness of Its Evaluation of
Retailer Review Documentation
Finding 4: AMS Needs to Improve Enforcement of COOL Regulations
Finding 5: AMS Needs to Improve Its Oversight of State Agencies
Finding 6: AMS Needs to Improve Communication with Retailers
Items covered by COOL Law, that needs traceback to the source, individual animal or packed or repacked produce:
- Muscle cuts of beef, veal, lamb, goat, chicken and pork;
- ground meats including beef, lamb, chicken, goat, and pork.
- Wild and farm-raised fish and shellfish.
- Fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables of all kinds, including cherries in brine. http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/getfile?dDocName=STELPRDC5082566
- Peanuts, Pecans, Macadamia Nuts
- Ginseng
USDA-AMS has cooperative agreements with all 50 states to conduct reviews of PACA-licensed retailers to ensure they adhere to COOL regulations, including recordkeeping. [Note: PACA = Perishable Agriculture Commodities Act.]
Retailer reviews include review the labels on all covered commodities to determine compliance with COOL labeling regulations, and review the records that support the country-of-origin and method of production labels for five covered commodities.
AMS also conducts tracebacks of covered commodities to ensure establishments that supply covered commodities to retailers meet COOL recordkeeping requirements. In addition, these tracebacks verify the accuracy of the method of production and country of origin labeling information.
AMS defined violations in policy document as either:
(1) failing to label a product;
(2) mislabeling a product;
(3) failing to maintain records.
ScoringAg has been built over years to help the industry with an easy to use and affordable system to comply with the 2002 Bio Terrorism Law, which is in mandatory since the FSMA has been signed into law on January 3rd, 2011, the COOL Law and the FSMA law.
ScoringAg can handle every recordkeeping and labeling requirement from the farm to the retail for every commodity that’s covered by any law.
With ScoringAg the supermarkets and retailers only need one database system for all commodities for source verification, traceback and the required 1 year data storage for COOL.
See several press articles from the past they are still valid today and our service is more needed then ever as the enforcement of the COOL law is now required and penalties can be up to $1,000 per violation.
ScoringAg has the complete meat traceback system working since 2004, that’s why Michigan State University used it for a meat traceback and traceup pilot project:
http://www.bradenton.com/2011/07/05/3322544/wheres-the-beef-bradenton-firm.html
ScoringAg is a worldwide web-based computer database system that offer’s retailers access to extensive traceback records, pictures, and videos to prove Country of Origin for item level individual and commingled foods.
Scoring Ag is built to automatically prove the Country of Origin and designed to show movement and ownership records from grower to retailer all in real time and store those records for the allowed time required for retailers.
ScoringAg’s cutting edge of modern technology in the agricultural industry, announces its global web-interface electronic record-keeping database system for all state and federally inspected establishments, both slaughter and processing, red meat and poultry, for the real-time documentation of monitoring and verification procedures encompassing their implemented SSOP and HACCP plans. http://www.prtoday.com/news/40002/
Find more information about ScoringAg at our website www.scoringag.com
Call us for more information on implementation procedure.
Best Regards,
Brunhilde Merker
Chief Executive Officer
Site-Specific Recordkeeping®
Point-to-Point Traceback™
www.ScoringAg.com
+ 941-792-6405
A public watchdog and advocate for fishermen and their coastal communities. Taufen is an "insider" who blew the whistle on the international profit laundering between global affiliates of North Pacific seafood companies, who use illicit accounting to deny the USA the proper taxes on seafood trade. The same practices are used to lower ex-vessel prices to the fleets, and to bleed monies from our regional economy. Worked 20 years in the Alaska seafood industry for processors in cost accounting, fleet management, operations.