HACCP & Friends Submitted

HACCP Plan, SSOPs, SOPs, GMP, Tag Out, Recall Plan, Forms & Friends
I just pressed the Send button to submit our final paperwork to get our licenses for opening our on-farm State Inspected Meat Processing Facility – also known as the Butcher Shop – on line and ready to cut meat.

It has been a many year process including about a year to get permits, research design, building the shell of the building we’ll grow into and then finishing off the first phase where we’ll do meat cutting initially along with the necessary space of the hall, bathroom and inspector’s office. We finished construction in July.

Since then I’ve been working on paperwork, building our food safety plan. Everything in an inspected facility requires an approved plan to make sure that the meat processing is conducted under sanitary conditions to produce a safe food product. This plan is called HACCP. HACCP builds on SSOPs which builds on SOPs which builds on GMPs. Additionally there was designing our new labels and doing all the paperwork for those. It’s been a very paperworky two months.

As these things go I’m doing well. I had been told that the fastest it could happen would be about a month and often it takes six months even when handled by experienced professionals. I’m out to two months almost to the day. I’ve submitted the plans with their supporting documentation, labels with their supporting documentation plus our actual license applications. Now I wait.

I’m told that typically it takes a week or two for the agency to go over the plans and there may well be a back and forth to make edits, corrections and improve the plan. I’m hoping we’ll get our license in September.

In the meantime back on the farm, we’re thawing a half pig to do our first wet run in the butcher shop. This will not be within inspection nor will it be for sale. It’s a practice pig so we can work out the kinks before we startup for real. I’m looking forward to some tenderloin – a cut of pork we almost never eat since it always sells out – My reward for all this paperwork!

Also see:
HACCP Plan Approved
HACCP Plan Meeting

Outdoors: 75°F/56°F Sunny
Tiny Cottage: 70°F/58°F

Daily Spark: Someone described a pig coming up between her legs and then knocking her off balance as it scoots away. This sounds like the pig is pranking her. I’ve seen small pigs do this to other pigs. Maybe it is a pig joke. Perhaps they think it is hilarious. Sort of like “Knock-Knock” that humans do – a good basic joke. Our dogs have several jokes like this such as Gotcha! (tail grab), Gotcha! (muzzle grab), Gotcha! (foot step), Gotcha! (spyhop). The subtle differences are more obvious to them just like we distinguish between various “Knock-Knock” jokes. Interestingly, I’ve never had a chicken tell me a joke, that I understood – not sure if they have no sense of humor or just prank differently.