WASHINGTON -- USDA's Food Safety & Inspection Service has created a guide to help small businesses and poultry producers who slaughter or process poultry for human food to determine whether the slaughter or processing operations are eligible for exemption from federal or state inspection.
The material -- Guidance for Determining Whether a Poultry Slaughter or Processing Operation is Exempt from the Inspection Requirements of the Poultry Products Inspection Act -- is available on the FSIS web site at http://www.fsis.usda.gov/regulations_&_policies/Compliance_Guides_Index/index.asp.
FSIS said the guide was created in response to an increasing number of small poultry producers, also called "growers," who are raising, slaughtering and processing their poultry on their farms and selling the poultry directly to customers at the farms or at farmers' markets.
Some of these small producers, FSIS said, are going further by building processing plants. Other producers are building processing plants to supply poultry that meets special religious dietary requirements such as Kosher and Halaal, or are for niche markets such as organically grown poultry.
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