On November 8, 2023, USDA announced its intent to clarify that meat products must be from animals that are born, raised, and slaughtered in the U.S. to meet the domestic origin requirements for purposes of USDA purchasing. AMS procures food products of domestic origin for use in nutrition assistance programs and regularly evaluates the effectiveness of its food purchase programs. Upon review, the guidelines for procuring beef, pork, lamb, and bison products were not as clear as other commodities.
On November 16, 2023, AMS convened a webinar to describe the requirement that meat produced for federal nutrition assistance programs be derived from animals born, raised, and slaughtered in the United States. Below are answers to frequently asked questions received following the webinar.
Question: What will AMS require as proof that meat produced for federal nutrition assistance programs is from animals born, raised, and slaughtered in the U.S.?
Answer: USDA regulations require that cattle, bison, swine, and lambs imported to the U.S., unless for direct slaughter, must be identified via branding, tattoos, and/or identification tags (9 CFR 93 and on the APHIS website). Therefore, AMS will require that vendors do not knowingly procure animals from outside the U.S. for use in federal nutrition assistance programs and that vendors do not knowingly slaughter animals clearly marked as imported to produce meat for federal nutrition assistance programs. AMS is confident this approach provides reasonable assurance that animals meet the program requirements, and thus will not require information that traces an animal to birth premise, for example.
Question: How will AMS enforce the domestic origin requirement?
Answer: AMS vendors for meat products must include in their technical proposals a description of how it will seek to ensure each individual requirement is met. For domestic origin, this will likely include a segregation plan and/or other methods to provide reasonable assurance that vendors do not knowingly procure animals from outside the U.S. for use in federal nutrition assistance programs and that vendors do not knowingly slaughter animals clearly marked as imported to produce meat for federal nutrition assistance programs. Once an updated technical proposal is approved by AMS, AMS then conducts regularly scheduled in-person audits to help ensure the vendor is following the technical proposal. For those vendors that choose the grader oversight option, procedures for conformance to the requirement will be presented by the vendor to AMS Quality Assessment Division (QAD) personnel for review and acceptance.
Question: What happens if an animal from outside the U.S. is found to have been used to produce meat for federal nutrition assistance programs?
Answer: As with all AMS purchase requirements, if a vendor non-conformance is identified by AMS, the vendor is required to respond to the non-conformance by providing a corrective action and, if necessary, updating its technical proposal. If a vendor is found to have willfully violated the domestic origin requirement by knowingly procuring animals from outside the U.S. for use in federal nutrition assistance programs or knowingly slaughtering animals clearly labelled as imported and using them to produce meat for federal nutrition assistance programs, the vendor will likely be required to replace the non-compliant product with compliant product and be suspended by AMS until such time that it provides adequate assurance that the root issue has been corrected.
Question: Will AMS auditors visit feedlots as part of verifying the domestic origin requirement?
Answer: No. AMS auditors will perform audits against the vendor’s technical proposal, which is limited to activities occurring on the premises of the vendor establishment. Ultimately, it is the vendor that is responsible for providing products that meet AMS’s requirements.
Question: Will contracts awarded prior to January 1, 2024, be subject to the clarified requirement?
Answer: No. AMS is implementing the updated requirement on January 1, 2024. Meat produced under contracts entered prior to January 1, 2024, is not subject to the clarified requirement. This is the case for the life of the contract. That is, if the contract is for deliveries through July 2024, for example, meat produced for those deliveries is not subject to the clarified requirement but rather to the requirement in place when the contract was entered. Meat produced under contracts entered on or after January 1, 2024, is subject to the clarified requirement. Contractors with concerns in meeting the clarified requirements should contact AMS. An email should be sent to Darin Doerscher at Darin.Doerscher@usda.gov with a copy to technicalapprovals@usda.gov.
Contact
Darin R. Doerscher, Chief
Food Safety and Technology Branch
USDA, AMS, Livestock & Poultry Program
Phone: 563-847-1550
Email: darin.doerscher@usda.gov