Egg Products Inspection - Regulatory Requirements & Best Practices

• By: Staff Editor
• Date: July 11, 2009

Eggs and egg products are an important source of the nation's total supply of food.  They are used in food in various forms. They are consumed throughout the nation.  A major portion thereof moves in interstate or foreign commerce. It is essential, in public interest, that the health and welfare of consumers be protected by the adoption of measures which assure that the eggs and egg products distributed to them and used in products consumed by them are wholesome, otherwise not adulterated, and properly labeled and packaged. Lack of effective regulation for the handling or disposal of unwholesome, otherwise adulterated, or improperly labeled or packaged egg products and certain qualities of eggs is injurious to public welfare and destroys markets for wholesome, not adulterated, and properly labeled and packaged eggs and egg prod-ucts and results in sundry losses to producers and processors, as well as injury to consumers.

Egg Products Inspection Act (EPIA)
Passed by the U.S Congress in December, 1970, the Egg Products Inspection Act is administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and imposes specific inspection requirements for two categories of eggs, namely, egg products and shell eggs.

• The Act gives enforcement authority to the USDA and to the Food and Drug Administration.
• Federal agriculture officials or state officials acting on behalf of USDA visit egg packers and hatcheries at least every three months to see that they are in compliance with the law.
• Firms which transport, ship or receive shell eggs and egg products may also be checked periodically.
• Under the Egg Products Inspection Act, plants that break, dry and process shell eggs into liquid, frozen or dried egg products must operate under the continuous inspection program of the USDA.
• An official inspector must be present at all times when eggs are being processed.
• The law applies to all egg-breaking plants, regardless of size, and to those selling products locally, across state lines and in foreign commerce.

Enforcement Authority
USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is responsible for ensuring that domestic and imported meat, poultry, and egg products are safe, wholesome, and accurately labeled. Foreign countries that export meat, poultry, and egg products to the United States are required to establish and maintain inspection systems that are equivalent to those of the United States. FSIS audits foreign inspection systems and re-inspects meat and poultry at the port-of-entry to ensure that foreign countries have main-tained equivalent inspection systems. FSIS makes two types of equivalence determinations:

• Determinations of initial equivalence (termed "eligibility") for countries that are not yet trading partners, and
• Determinations of whether equivalence is being maintained by countries that are currently eligible.

Categories of Eggs Subject to EPIA regulations

Grading
Classification determined by interior and exterior quality and designated by letters-AA, A and B. In many egg packing plants, the USDA provides a grading service for shell eggs. Its official grade shield certifies that the eggs have been graded under federal supervision according to USDA standards and regulations. The grading service is not mandatory. Other eggs are packed under state regulations which must meet or exceed federal standards.

In the grading process, eggs are examined for both interior and exterior quality and are sorted according to weight (size). Grade quality and size are not related to one another. In descending order of quality, the grades are AA, A and B.

The Egg Products Inspection Act (EPIA) controls the distribution of such eggs to prevent their getting into consumer channels. Checks and dirties are allowed to move to official USDA egg products plants where they can be properly handled and processed. They cannot be sold in the shell to restaurants, bakeries, food manufacturers or consumers unless such sales are specifically exempted by section 15 of the Act and not prohibited by state law. All other restricted eggs must be disposed of according to approved procedures.

Source:
http://www.fda.gov/RegulatoryInformation/Legislation/ucm148752.htm
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/factsheets/FSIS_Import_Procedures/index.asp
http://www.georgiaeggs.org/pages/epia.html
http://www.georgiaeggs.org/pages/eggproducts.html
http://www.georgiaeggs.org/pages/grading.html
http://www.georgiaeggs.org/pages/restrictedeggs.html