Farm Compliance

Washington, DC - The United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced today that the National Advisory Committee on Meat and Poultry Inspection (NACMPI) will hold a public meeting on Aug. 27-28, 2008, to review and discuss international equivalence and approaches to assessing foreign food regulatory systems as a means of ensuring the safety of imported food products.

The meeting will take place Wednesday, Aug. 27, from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Thursday, Aug. 28, 2008, from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. in USDA’s South Building Cafeteria, 14th & Independence Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C. Two subcommittees of the NACMPI will hold open meetings during their deliberations and report preparation.

The meeting will include discussion of various approaches to assessing foreign inspection systems: the approach taken by FSIS and that taken by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Food and Drug Administration; industry’s perspective on these approaches; the consumer perspective; and the perspectives and approaches of several foreign governments.

The NACMPI was established in 1971 to provide advice and recommendations to the Secretary of Agriculture regarding meat and poultry inspection programs. The committee, which generally meets twice a year, addresses food safety and policy issues affecting USDA.

Comments to this notice are welcome and may be submitted through e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

For more information about the public meetings, contact Faye Smith at (202) 720-9113 or by e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . Persons requiring a sign language interpreter or other special accommodations should contact Faye Smith by Aug. 22.