This technical directive is a repeat of technical directive 99/61 Loadout of Meat from Licensed/Approved Premises, issued 16 April 1999.

1

Background

1.1

Consignments and certificates frequently contain errors, which lead to rejection of the certificates by the importing authorities, particularly in the USA, Canada and the European Union. The authorities hold MAF responsible for accuracy of the certificates and are concerned that we have not been able to reduce the number of errors.

1.1.1

Certificates may be required to be replaced as a result of overseas authorities detecting errors in the certificates accompanying or covering product. Essentially, such errors fall into two categories:

Omission of information, e.g.

• Missing "New Zealand" in address entries (of concern to Canada);

• Not including shipping mark details;

• Not including all the premises, such as cold stores for product to the EU;

• Missing label approval numbers.

Incorrect information, e.g.

• Incorrect shipping marks on certificates when compared with those on the product;

• Discrepancies in product description between product and certificate (this includes incorrectly labelled product);

• Incorrect quantities (usually relating to more product shipped than was certified);

• Incorrect container seal and/or container number details;

• Incorrect label approval numbers;

• Use of consignees not based in the country of destination (of particular concern to the USDA.

Note: The lists given above are examples only and are not intended to be exhaustive or comprehensive.

1.2

All previous attempts to correct these problems have failed. A standardised shipping mark protocol was set up for Canada but this is not widely used and duplications occur between consignments. A warning was added to the Canada section several years ago that application of the certificate numbers to cartons in lieu of the normal shipping mark may be necessary. A suggestion that exporters take errors seriously be being faced with an increase in the replacement certificate fee from $1000 to $5000 was rejected by the Meat Industry Standards Council (MISC). Following this, the Director Animal Products stated that MAF was not obliged to issue replacements and might not do so in the future if the errors continued.

1.3

Following further complaints from North America, the MISC requested MAF to issue a technical directive requiring QC procedures targeted at shipping marks.

2

Procedure

2.1

All licensees/approved operators loading out edible meats (excluding game and game meat) for final export are to implement written procedures in accordance with the principles of IS8, section 4. A copy of the programme is to be provided to the Technical Supervisor otherwise, for the purposes of 2.3& 2.4, the programme will be considered not to exist.

2.2

The written programme shall clearly describe carton marking and counting methods and cross checking procedures to confirm the accuracy of the results. Records shall be signed by the person responsible for the loadout and that person's supervisor.

2.3

Rejected certificates (wrong marks and counts - including Canada grade marks) for consignments loaded out after the date of implementation of this technical directive, and for which the loadout was not subject to a documented programme, will not be replaced.

2.4

Rejected certificates (wrong marks and counts - including Canada grade marks) for consignments loaded out after the date of implementation of this technical directive, and covered by a written programme, will be replaced only after the corrective actions and procedures to prevent recurrence are assessed. Repetitive failure of procedures to prevent recurrence will lead to rejection of the written programme and consequently replacement certificates will not be authorised by MAF Food. CEO's will be notified in advance by MAF Food when this action is imminent.

2.5

It is recommended that licensees/approved operators include other factors in their written programmes, e.g. container and seal numbers, product descriptions, etc. The sanctions in 2.3 & 2.4 may be added to these types or errors in the future.

3

Cancellation

This technical directive cancels and replaces technical directive 99/61 Loadout of Meat from Licensed/Approved Premises, issued 16 April 1999.

4

Implementation

4.1

1 May 1999