North American Meat Institute’s (NAMI), 2013 Guidelines.

Next question, please.

You can credit, as does NAMI, the “2013” to that innovate Colorado Professor who delights audiences with her speeches by always making pure sense and logic — seem so trivial.

That’s not always easy to do, just ask the Laurel’s and Hardy’s of the “La La Land” fiasco on Oscar night. It’s always been innate nature for Temple Grandin.

There are many other humane handling certification bodies popping up worldwide that have those fancy ISO’ing words attached, but Grandin has already been there done that since the last century.

These other humane handling guidelines are great and progressive don’t get me wrong. But one doesn’t need to hire a Watson from Scotland Yard to see Grandin’s fingerprints on nearly ever page of their guidelines.

Credit too, NAMI’s humane handling committee members, past and present.

Is it just a coincidence that the new director of the Professional Animal Auditor Certification Organization (PAACO) is the fully capable, Collette Kaster?

That is, after years of superb guidance offered and directed by Mike Simpson. A has-to-be shoe in future Meat Hall of Famer. Like other deserving players of the past, it’s hard to fathom that a Pete Rose hasn’t reached Cooperstown yet – based on performance alone. Please, let’s circumvent this regarding Simpson’s stoic but effective/validated leadership and foresight of years past.

Is it just by pure happenstance at its very pinnacle that Kaster has been on the NAMI committee for years now?

Is it just one of those Haley Comet type of 74-year anomalies that all Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) auditors are PAACO trained?

Is it a dang printing error that the AMS incorporated NAMI’s “2013” years ago into their requirements for pre-approved suppliers to the National School Lunch Program?

I have one more. Hold on!

The Professor from Colorado University believes, presently — it may be going up to 99 percent soon — that 95 percent and higher first time knocking of cattle is the way to go.

What a golden idea that one is — for years now.

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– The establishment must write a thoroughly detailed Technical Proposal that describes its unique operations   that must be germane to the NSLP and FSIS regulations regarding the product(s) it would like to supply the U.S. government.

– Once the Technical Proposal is written, it’s sent to Washington DC for approval.

– After the process of approval is finally granted, each company must then schedule what is known as a pre-award audit with an assigned AMS auditor. The audit usually takes one day and includes auditing human handling in the corrals, the harvesting floor, fabrication and grinding operations. The auditor shall also ensure that the company’s written Technical Proposal is accurate to what she/he observes during the audit. The auditor will also check the plants multiple HACCP, SSOP and Prerequisite programs for efficacy, including its food defense program, and will request a private conference with the establishment’s Inspector-In-Charge.

– Once the pre-award audit is passed, the establishment is registered on the government’s website with a series of codes that will enable the establishment to bid against other companies for governmental contracts. If a company harvests livestock, it must have a written humane handling program that is based on the American Meat Institute’s (AMI) 2010 Livestock Manual, which is co-authored by Dr. Temple Grandin and the AMI’s livestock committee members.

– An AMS auditor will then perform an audit of the company’s livestock program / operations twice a year, unannounced.  If the plant fails the humane handing audit, the company is automatically disqualified until it can provide evidence to USDA that it’s capable of passing a humane handling audit. That is, after the company responds to a critical non-compliance record, including future preventive measures. Yet another humane handling of livestock audit is performed before the disqualification status is lifted.

– In harvesting, the plant must swab one whole carcass (both halves) for E. coli O157:H7 every harvesting day. It must also have at least two or more pathogenic interventions, i.e. lactic acid spray or hot water pasteurization, that have been validated by a reputable third party laboratory within the last fiscal year and be able to evince a log reduction of 3 logs or more.

– In fabrication, each plant must perform N70 testing of each individual bin of boneless beef. Each individual bin is considered to be a lot. The sample sizes must be in conformance with FSIS Directive 10,010 Rev. 3. Each company is assigned an Assigned Designated Laboratory, (ADL) where the samples of boneless and ground beef are tested. Know that the AMS also audits these ADLs at least once a year, and that they must bid for their Government contract as well. NSLP combo bins must weigh at least 1850 lbs., and must never exceed 2250 lbs., with the last combo bin not exceeding10% of 2250 lbs.

– Each boneless beef sample must be taken from the surface of the carcass, which cannot be sprayed with an anti-bacterial spray 15 minutes prior to collecting samples. A total of 60 samples are tested for E. coli O157:H7, with the remaining 10 samples tested for Salmonella, generic E. coli, total plate count and E. coli coliform. In the event the product is positive for E. coli O157:H7 or Salmonella, the entire day’s production is rejected. For example, if you take individual N70 samples of each individual 40 combo bin and bin number 36 tests positive for E. coli O157:H7, all of the bins, 1 through 40, are rejected, unless the establishment can proffer scientific documentation / data on why the other 39 bins should still be included for the NSLP program.

– On the grinding end, the same pathogens and indicative organisms are tested with the same rejection rules as boneless beef. For every 10,000 pounds of ground beef generated, a composite sample is taken and collected by the establishment during the filling continuum of each sub-lot and picked up by an ADL courier on the same day or the next morning. All samples are held by the AMS agent in a locked, government sealed sub-zero freezer at the establishment until the ADL courier picks up the samples.

Every year, around May or June, a NSLP conference, put on by Livestock and Seed, is held in Kansas City, Missouri. It’s usually a two-day conference that delineates any changes for both new and existing suppliers. All establishments that were approved in 2012 must again re-submit a new 2013 Technical Proposal, (regardless if there are changes or not) before they are allowed to bid in 2013.