Update: NCIMS Pilot HACCP Program for Grade A Dairy Plants
Posted: April 2002
What is the NCIMS HACCP Pilot Program?
In 1999, the National Conference on Interstate Milk Shipments (NCIMS) initiated a voluntary dairy HACCP pilot program for dairy plants to test the concept that a HACCP program could function as an equal alternative to the numerical ratings that have been used for years to measure a plant’s compliance. The original program included six Grade A dairy plants in six different states. In May 2001, the NCIMS Conference expanded the HACCP pilot to include all states and all Grade A plants that were interested in volunteering.
List of Participating Dairy Plants
The pilot program now includes 15 plants in 10 states:
| California | Clover Stornetta |
| Connecticut | YoFarm Company |
| Florida | Publix Supermarkets |
| Maine | Garelick Farms; Oakhurst Dairy |
| New Jersey | Parmalat / Farmland Dairies; Tropical Cheese |
| New York | Cornell University |
| Pennsylvania | Dutch Valley Food Co Inc.; Meadow Brook |
| Utah | Gossner Foods, Inc.; The Dannon Co |
| Vermont | St. Albans Coop Creamery |
| Washington | Wilcox Family Farms; Safeway, Inc. |
Additional plant participation is needed to ensure support for the program by the 2003 NCIMS Conference delegates. Please let IDFA know if you are interested in enrolling your plant(s) in this program. For further information on the NCIMS pilot program, please contact Allen Sayler at (202) 220-3544, asayler@idfa.org.
Benefits to Plant Participation in the NCIMS Pilot Program
Grade A dairy plants under the traditional NCIMS program must comply with a long list of requirements found in the Pasteurized Milk Ordinance (PMO). Here are some examples:
- Score 90 or better on state ratings and 80 or better on FDA checkratings in order to ship product interstate.
- State inspection once every three months, state listings every two years and FDA checkratings every three years.
- Pasteurization equipment tested quarterly by the state.
Under the HACCP pilot program, plants are audited based on their own HACCP programs with no scoring. In addition, the plant is audited once every four months, going to every six months after the first year (versus every three months under the PMO program). The pilot program also gives responsibility for checking pasteurization equipment to the dairy plant -- under the PMO system, state regulators are in the plant checking this equipment every three months. The NCIMS HACCP program could also be a deterrent to FDA mandating HACCP throughout the dairy industry.
Grade A plants are strongly encouraged to volunteer and participate. The increase in participating HACCP pilot plants would assist two goals:
- ensure the continued availability of the NCIMS HACCP pilot as a voluntary alternative to the prescriptive PMO program, and
- reduce the possibility of FDA mandating HACCP in the dairy industry.
###
For more information on the IDFA HACCP Certification Program, contact the IDFA educational services group at (202) 737-4332 or info@idfahaccp.org.
Click here to return to IDFAhaccp.org homepage.
